OPINION: Keeping whales in captivity serves the greater good

A recent bill from Senator Wilfred Moore aims to end the captivity of whales and dolphins - a practice he calls unethical. But John Nightingale, President and CEO of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, argues that Bill S-230 could do more harm than good to the species its meant to protect. The Vancouver Aquarium made its reputation as the first to keep captive orcas in Canada. The orcas are long gone, but with its belugas and dolphins, the Aquarium is still one of two sites in Canada to keep cetaceans in captivity. Jim Brown spoke with John Nightingale, this week.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.     

You wrote, in a commentary, that this bill could actually harm the species it aims to protect. How so?

A couple of key ways. The first is these animals are in the Vancouver Aquarium specifically to engage people. We need a lot more Canadians interested in and aware of what's going on in our oceans, and particularly in our Arctic. And secondly, at the Vancouver Aquarium these animals are all part of scientific programs that always extend out into the wild, or into the field, dealing with key conservation questions that we need to know answers to as we seek to reduce human impact in their environment. And so, when the Senator says these animals should be studied in nature, absolutely. And they are. But if you take away the ability to study them in places like the Vancouver Aquarium, it's like trying to work on the science and understanding what's going on with one and a half hands tied behind your back.

What kind of research do you do at the Aquarium that you can't do in the wild?

You can't do anything where you need their co-operation. And that's the advantage of a beluga in some place like the Vancouver Aquarium, is that they're well trained, which means that they can assist in the research. So all of the bands that are used on wild belugas to mark them -- and it's a little plastic band that goes around their front flipper -- all of that technology was developed in the Aquarium. So the good research is a partnership: Often the technology or the techniques need to be worked out with animals that can purposefully co-operate with you. It needs to be applied, then, in the wild to understand what is happening to these animals in nature.

Can you point to some evidence that this research on captive whales and dolphins has done anything to protect those animals in the wild?

The first thing I would propose is that people care about them now much, much more than they did 10 years ago, or 20 years ago or 50 years ago. Killer whales have gone from, 50 years ago, being absolutely feared, shot on sight, the province even had machine gun stations set up to kill them -- fortunately they never used the machine guns. The Coast Guard had a notice out to mariners that said, 'If you fall out of your boat, get back in quick, before the killer whales eat you.' So from 50 years ago to today, where most people -- they're sort of mini swimming gods, now. They're viewed as mythical or, in some cases, almost supernatural. All of that caring came about, in part, because of actions of places like the Vancouver Aquarium.

But is it possible that you've done your job so well, you've created such a level of caring amongst humans for these species, that that level of caring now extends to not wanting to see them in captivity any longer?

True, in some cases. That's one of my arguments for the activists. I say, 'Okay, you're spending all your time carrying signs around in front of the Aquarium; you're doing nothing for nature. You're not putting any energy or any money into trying to help correct the problems that are affecting not two belugas in the Aquarium, but thousands in the wild.' And I don't get straight answers from people because I think working on problems in nature is exceedingly difficult. Nature is a huge place, each one of us in only one person, we feel kind of impotent, and so protesting the Aquarium is easy. But when you really think about it and you say, 'Okay, wait a minute. These two or three animals here are helping people understand what the real issues are in the Arctic and some of the things that we can do means talking to our government about doing a better job and certain kinds of regulation of activity, because governments do respond to public discourse.'