Artist’s impression of the groundbreaking habitat developed by the Whale Sanctuary Project. Photo: The Whale Sanctuary Project
MARCH 7th 2020
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
The Potential Whale Sanctuary
For years, animals of all sorts have been taken into cities and turned into entertainment, robbed of the natural habitats they were born to thrive in. Some whales have had it particularly bad, many having been raised in captivity. But now, one US-based organisation intends to do something about it.
Announced earlier at the end of February, the Whale Sanctuary Project is a venture designed to resettle captive whales in an environment they can prosper in. It revealed certain plans and developments made so far, which includes a testing ground for the project located in a small town in Eastern Canada – the first step towards creating the perfect sanctuary for captive whales.
Whales are held captive all over the world, primarily for the purposes of performance and entertainment. Presently, according to statistics, there are over 60 orcas (33 being captive-born), and 300 beluga whales all held captive in parks and aquariums all around the world. Disputes regarding whale captivity have been made infamous over the years, especially since the revelation of the SeaWorld controversy that’d arisen in the past decade.
As such, the organisation have looked vastly for a space wide enough to support the whales once they could be released, searching specifically for a space spanning at least 100 acres (404,686 square meters). The necessary area would need to have habitable temperatures that didn’t experience change too severe for the whales, nor could they be places where storms would visit too often. The area would also need to have easy access for the organisation to set up nearby to feed the whales – seeing as they predict they may be overcome by stress at being released into the open world after so long (some having never experienced freedom at all).
As for the place, the organisation have selected the coastal community of Port Hilford, located in the province of Nova Scotia in Canada. The plan for the sanctuary involves deploying a net in a manner to enclose a large area off for the whales. The idea is to introduce them to a more spacious environment more akin to the vast oceans, while helping them get used to the idea of freedom in an atmosphere of proper growth.
The founder of the group, Dr Lori Marino, said “Their quality of life can be a whole lot better than it is in the entertainment parks. But they don’t have the survival skills to just be dumped back in the ocean. [The sanctuary] is much closer to their natural habitat than the way they’re living now.”
The issues surrounding the problem have been properly highlighted by the 2013 documentary ‘Blackfish’, made popular by its eye-opening nature to a problem many had no idea about.
“Belugas don’t have their own Blackfish movie, so they’re easy to forget about,” Marino added. “But there are so many of them in those tanks, not doing well.”
The community around Port Hilford has been very open to the idea of the sanctuary, and many have even expressed their open support for the project. “These are people who really get it,” said Marino. “We’ve been struck by how they’ve opened their hearts.”
The overall project has thus far seen an entire £11 million invested into it, so everyone working on the project is eager to see it work. This will be the first sanctuary built in North America – hopefully only one of more to come, as they predict the space chosen will only be suitable to comfortably house 8 whales.
The project comes also in light of the recent changes made in the Canadian House of Commons last June, banning the keeping of whales and dolphins in captivity for the sake of entertainment and business. All this achieved thanks to the arguable face of whale rights activism, Camille Labchuk, the working executive director of an Ottawa based animal rights group, ‘Animal Justice’.
Approvals for the process of the sanctuary are currently pending with the Canadian government, but everyone involved in the project has hope that they will succeed in all they’ve been working towards.
Marino went on to say “I worked with captive dolphins and beluga whales when I was a student. It wasn’t until I actually saw them in the wild that I realised who they were. They don’t belong in concrete tanks. They need to have the ocean and all its variety and challenges to really thrive.”
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
