Fish Tales TODAY'S VANCOUVER SUN ARTICLE IS TITLED: "Vancouver Aquarium to spend $20M on beluga area despite upcoming ban" More and more media outlets are now questioning the Vancouver Aquarium's announcement of plans to spend $20 million in the next 2 years to build larger beluga tanks, only to keep belugas for 10 years after that. Also fishy is the fact that Aquarium reps claim that they don't know what they will do with the new beluga tanks once the "self-imposed" beluga ban is in place in 2029. And if you believe that, we have a whale to sell you. ------------------------------------------------------------- READ TODAY'S VANCOUVER SUN ARTICLE "Vancouver Aquarium to spend $20M on beluga area despite upcoming ban" The Vancouver Aquarium plans to spend $20 million to expand its beluga habitat, despite plans to stop displaying the whales by 2029. Improvements to the Arctic exhibit are part of a $100-million expansion plan now underway at the non-profit facility. The first phase of the project, which included a new entrance and exhibits, plus a licensed café, cost about $45 million and opened in 2014. Those costs also included some upgrades to the Arctic exhibit, where the belugas have been housed. The aquarium announced Monday that the beluga program will end by 2029, news that followed an inconclusive investigation into the sudden deaths of its two remaining whales in November. Expansion of the beluga habitat and re-introduction of up to five non-breeding animals is expected to be complete by early 2019, leaving just 10 years before the program is phased out. It’s unclear what impact the loss of the belugas will have on the aquarium’s finances. Spokeswoman Deana Lancaster said there’s no way to break out what portion of the non-profit’s annual ticket revenues can be directly attributed to the presence of the belugas. “I don’t think many visitors take that approach. The cost of admission includes access to the entire aquarium,” she wrote in an email. Admissions and membership sales account for the biggest chunk of the facility’s revenue, bringing in about half of the overall income in both 2014 and 2015. There are no plans yet for what will happen to the beluga habitat once the whales are gone in 2029, or whether the aquarium will continue to conduct research on the animals in the wild. Even though the aquarium is slowly saying goodbye to the belugas, it isn’t entirely ending the practice of keeping cetaceans in captivity. The organization plans to continue with its marine m of surviving in the wild after their recovery and are now on display at the aquarium. Helen, the facility’s Pacific white-sided dolphin, was rescued off the coast of Japan after getting tangled in a fishing net. She was brought to Vancouver after her recovery. ------------------------------------------------- PHOTO: Empty Beluga Show Tank @ Vancouver Aquarium CREDIT: Vanaquafacts