The first bit of news for the new year is that Walter, the sea otter who was gravely wounded after being shot in the fall, has been deemed unreleasable. He is now blind and still will require multiple surgeries to fix his flipper. Just to feed him food has to be dropped on his chest or he cant find it. It is hoped that over time he will be able to join the other otters on exhibit at the aquarium. For now they just need to work on his health and helping him adapt to his disablilities. Life will be pretty nice for him once he regains his health. Blinded sea otter recovers at aquarium - The Globe and Mail Walter, Sea Otter Shot And Blinded, To Live At Vancouver Aquarium
The aquarium is offering a new progam for the next couple of months called Up Close. Visitors are selected at random to perform keeper tasks with the animals. Sometimes that means going into off exhibit space. Caught on camera: Getting up close with the Vancouver Aquarium - The Globe and Mail http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/...um-offering-up-close-behind-the-scenes-tours/
The aquarium will likely get more belugas when the expansion opens in 2017. Thats sure to brew up some controversy. Vancouver Aquarium will "likely" acquire more large marine mammals, including beluga whales | Georgia Straight, Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly In other news they have hired one of the leading researchers into the effects of marine pollution on animals. Marine researcher joins Vancouver Aquarium two years after losing federal funding - The Globe and Mail
Psh, hardly new animals. They are most likely just bringing back the animals they already own from Seaworld, female Allua and male Imaq. They also own the male Nanuq, however I have my doubts about them bringing him back as he is rather well represented in the captive population and already has an offspring in Vancouver.
Could be right. I forgot they shipped out the male. But that wouldnt be getting more animals that would just be the return of animals. Could just be a poor choice of words. Could be more than the returned animals are expected. We probably wont know until closer to the opening.
The aquarium is running a contest for a behind the scenes with the sea lions experience. Vancouver Aquarium: Up Close – Sea Lion Encounters | CTV Vancouver News
The aquarium has rescued another sea otter. Wiffen is in very rough shape and they consider it lucky he even made it to the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre. He's still in critical condition but he is making small improvements so they are hopeful they can save him and perhaps return him to the wild. They expect it to cost at least $30 000 to rehab him should he survive the process. Vancouver Aquarium Rescues Emaciated Sea Otter 'Wiffen'
The aquarium's marine mammal rescue team has been back in action saving multiple California and Stellars sea lions who had been entangled. Sea lions rescued from slow death in Fanny Bay, B.C. - British Columbia - CBC News
The aquariums Panamanian Golden Frogs have bred there for the first time. Vancouver Aquarium golden frogs get busy in race against extinction - Technology & Science - CBC News
They have saved another sea lion from a nearly certain entanglement death while on the look out for a different sea lion they are desperately trying to find. Another entangled sea lion rescued off B.C. coast | CTV Vancouver News
The fate of the beluga and dolphin program could be decided this fall by voters. There's a move to ban the animals from being kept in captivity. It sounds like the current population can stay but once they die they wont be replaced. 2 park board members want all whales and dolphins removed from captivity - BC | Globalnews.ca
This sudden explosion of stigma about marine mammals in captivity in the past few years has been most frustrating. Hopefully it dies down soon.
Another piece has popped up on whales at the aquarium. Pete McMartin: The Vancouver Aquarium: Thar she blows! Up!
I was at the Vancouver Aquarium today (4th time already this year) and there are plenty of signs up advertising June 13th as the date for the grand unveiling of the "largest expansion in the aquarium's history". There is still a great deal of construction ongoing, but on June 13th the new outdoor plaza, huge entrance, indoor meeting area, new rotational gallery, indoor restaurant and gift shop will all open to the public. I haven't heard of any specific animal exhibits at this point (those will arrive in the near future) but with 1 million annual visitors the aquarium badly needs this expansion in order to accommodate the growing crowds and the new entrance looks to be very impressive as it is almost finished. Also, there has been a LOT of comments in the local newspapers in regards to the keeping of cetaceans in captivity as the plan by 2017 is for the aquarium to enlarge its beluga whale and dolphin pools and possibly obtain more specimens from other aquatic facilities. The Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, and several other high-profile politicians, along with "The Province" newspaper, have ALL spoken out against the keeping of whales and dolphins in captivity while at the same time praising Vancouver Aquarium for its great work in other areas. It will be interesting to see what occurs as the aquarium is loved by just about everyone but the maintaining of whales and dolphins is not viewed as ethical by many supporters.
I will be visiting this aquarium this month, so will miss the opening of the expansion, but it doesn't sound like I'll be missing much! @Snowleopard, Can you provide a list of the mammals displayed here, and are there any birds, reptiles or amphibians?
Well I'm not snowleopard, but I'm not a stranger to Vanaqua either For Mammals they display(some on rotation): Pacific White Sided Dolphin Beluga Whale Harbour Porpoise Sea Otter Harbour Seal Stellar Sea Lion Northern Fur Seal They actually have several(9 to be exact) bird species as well: Ringed Teal Scarlet Ibis Blue-Grey Tanager Pacific Parrotlet Hyacinth Macaw Blue Crowned Amazon Double Yellow Head Amazon Red Rumped Toucanet African Penguin All of the birds are exclusive to their rainforest walkthrough, with the exception of the penguins, which live outside between the Porpoises and Belugas. There are numerous different species of reptiles, and even more different varieties of amphibians exhibited as well! There is such an amount I would be hard pressed to recall everything by memory alone. To be honest, I wouldn't be all to glum about missing the opening of the expansion, it will be the exact same, but with far less crowds than when it initially opens.
Thanks for the list. Which species are on rotation? Would they likely be visible on the same day? The species I'm most interested in are the dolphins and porpoises.
"Hyak" did a great job summarizing a list of some of the species at the aquarium, and here are the aquatic mammals that I saw yesterday: Pacific White Sided Dolphin - 2 Beluga Whale - 2 Harbour Porpoise -2 Sea Otter - 3 (including one that is blind) Harbour Seal - 2 Stellar Sea Lion - 2 Northern Fur Seal (off-exhibit) Other than the Northern Fur Seals I've seen all of the other species on each of my 4 visits this year so you should have no problem at all. In regards to birds there are 7 African Penguins in an outdoor exhibit and the rest are in the small Tropical Rainforest walk-through area. Yesterday I saw the 3-foot long, free-roaming Basilisk lizard and that was a highlight as that critter is often very elusive in the rainforest zone. In regards to reptiles and amphibians there is an excellent section called "Frogs Forever?" that has 22 exhibits with various species of frog, toad and newt. Throughout the aquarium there are various other herp exhibits featuring anacondas, a boa constrictor, a green sea turtle, poison dart frogs, Yacare caimans, etc. Unfortunately for you it is not a great time to be visiting the aquarium. Clownfish Cove, the kiddie section with a few tanks, has been completely taken apart and that area is now non-existent and due to be relocated near the 4-D Theatre. That accounts for 2 construction zones inside the aquarium, plus the entire outside area is awash with construction as the new entrance plaza, indoor restaurant, gift shop, etc, makes its debut in 5 weeks. The aquarium can become crammed with visitors and the expansion (even without any new animals) will be brilliant as it will spread out the overwhelming crowds and school groups that are seemingly around every corner. The Tropical Rainforest has 2 more construction zones as at least 8 exhibits have been closed for months (Jamaican fruit bats, turtles, electric eel, piranhas, pufferfish, etc) and a large replica of an Amazonian tree trunk with a dozen invertebrate species (various tarantulas, centipedes and scorpions) is also closed. There are several temporary jellyfish displays that are blocking permanent exhibits and the entire aquarium really is a bit of a mish-mash at the moment. After June 13th it will be immeasurably better and so you'll have to keep that in mind during your visit. However, even with all of the closures there is still a lot to see and the aquarium is bigger and better than anything to be found in either Australia or New Zealand but it still is nowhere near as impressive as Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. I would rank Vancouver Aquarium as the #7 best aquarium I've ever seen and I'll have toured more than 50 by this August.
Thanks Snowleopard. Really looking forward to my visit here! Shame the Jamaican Fruit Bats are off-display, they would have been another nice species. I will hopefully be there at opening time and beat the crowds!
Oh, that's the other thing. Stay the whole day ! Often at night (within .5-1 hour before closing) the crowds thin out quite noticeably and you can usually manage to get a porpoise or dolphin to come down to the underwater viewing and interact with you !
