Whale dies at Vancouver Aquarium

[Catherine]

Sadly the Beluga Whale Aurora has died at Vancouver Aquarium. He daughter, Qila died nine days ago.

Whales do not do well in captivity.
http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=1&at=dt0



http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...124&at=dt0


This is of course the tragic loss of a beautiful creature, made more tragic by the loss of her daughter 9 days ago.
It calls into question the keeping of whales in captivity. There is a  lot of pressure on places like Vancouver Aquarium to stop keeping whales.
The aquarium of course responds that there are educational reasons to continue whale exhibits.

I think the two opinions can never be reconciled. Some see the beauty of Beluga Whales in the open ocean and are happy to know they are there. Some like to possess the whales and use them for various purposes. If you could show that the whales were happy and living good lives and even breeding in captivity, at least you make a case that it was a conservation effort.
They don't do well in captivity. They don't breed. So a female like Aurora, who should have had many offspring in her life, only had one, who died. So by keeping Aurora in captivity they  excluded her from the Beluga gene pool. She lost out and the whole species lost out. All other arguments take second place to this one. Belugas are intelligent, sensitive creatures. No one should be able to deny them a chance to fulfill the biological imperative to reproduce.

I can only hope that Aurora's death will be the beginning of the end for the captive whale program at Vancouver Aquarium.