Vancouver Aquarium

Jonathan Hultquist was our speaker today and he is with the Vancouver Aquarium.

The Aquarium is undergoing a major expansion and re fit with the grand opening coming soon now in June of this year.

It has cost 100 million to complete with 25 million coming from the Federal Govt, 25 million from the Province of BC with a major private donor being Teck Mining of 12 and a half million.

The Whales have been in the news recently with the question being “should they be returned to the Oceans”

They say no, as they provide a lot of value to the visiting public.

Nothing teaches children more about whales than seeing a live one in front of them.

They keep Beluga’s, Dolphins, seals, all sorts.

They will not catch any in the wild or take any that were caught after 1996.

The Aquarium opened in 1956 and today we have 10,000 visitors a year.   They have had 10 million visitors so far.

They have a very successful video running on You Tube with 19 million hits so far.  They have over 1,000 volunteers with over 150,000 hours racked up in total.

They organize The Great Shore Line clean up that we participate in every year.

They have the Animal rescue centre that takes orphans and animals that need care.

They have received over 20,000 animals so far.  They are currently doing a Rockfish and Ling cod survey to establish a base line of where we stand with them today.

They have done much study on Killer whales, which are totally an Icon of B.C.  Our oldest killer whale is 100 years old.

Vancouver Aquarium is well respected around the world

Mary thanked the speaker.