Opinion: An aquarium at Royalmount? Horrible concept

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The sprawling Royalmount complicated now below building close to Freeway 40 and the Décarie Expressway is planning to incorporate a brand new Aquarium de Montréal in 2024. This was introduced on March 14. A couple of days earlier than, Kiska, the final surviving orca in captivity in Canada, died at Marineland in Niagara Falls.

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Kiska had been described because the “loneliest orca on the planet” and lived for 40 years in a tank, not a lot larger than a small swimming pool. She was born within the wild however stolen from her household and used for breeding and leisure functions.

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Regardless of the very fact orcas are social animals, reside in massive teams and swim huge distances within the open ocean, Kiska lived alone for the previous 11 years; she gave delivery 5 instances whereas in captivity, and all of her infants died. She commonly exhibited indicators of psychological misery, bashing her physique in opposition to the facet of her tank, sporting down her enamel by gnawing in opposition to its cement sides.

Fortunately, no different orca will endure Kiska’s destiny. In 2019, Canada handed S-203, successfully outlawing whale and dolphin captivity. (Kiska and the dolphins at Marineland had been excluded from the legislation’s protections, as they had been already in captivity when the legislation got here into impact.)

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Montreal’s deliberate aquarium will probably be prohibited from housing cetaceans (whales, dolphins or porpoises) and for my part this can be a promising improvement. What worries me, nonetheless, is the shortage of safety for all the opposite “low upkeep” aquarium animals — together with seals, otters, African penguins, small amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders), marine invertebrates (crabs, sea anemones, jellies, sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and shrimps), bugs, arachnids, snakes and lizards —  usually housed in aquaria.

Whereas I acknowledge such services should meet sure authorized rules, the bigger and extra troubling query is: What message do such locations ship by their easy existence? Zoos and aquaria current a false sense of how animals reside within the wild. The underside line is that they operate for revenue.

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Whereas in recent times many such services have tried to reinvent themselves as locations of conservation and training, I’d argue it’s by no means in an animal’s finest curiosity to be transported from the wild and positioned in captivity. Furthermore, there’s little proof zoos and aquaria really educate or preserve species. Once more, animals in captivity don’t behave as they’d within the wild. Can one research human nature by observing individuals locked up in prisons and asylums?

Nowadays there are a lot of thrilling and interactive means to study animals, their behaviours and their habits — by means of books, movies and digital actuality, for instance. Exposing youngsters to animals in captivity sends a robust message that conserving animals in unnatural environments and limiting their actions and behavior is suitable and that their struggling doesn’t matter.

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Animals in captivity do endure — that’s past debate. However the tide is altering in Canada, and two developments are value mentioning:

The Whale Sanctuary Venture is now being developed in Nova Scotia as Canada’s first seaside whale sanctuary, to accommodate beforehand captive whales and different cetaceans in a protected cove the place they will reside their lives in relative freedom.

There may be additionally a Senate invoice earlier than Parliament — the Jane Goodall Act (Invoice S-241) that goals to extend protections for greater than 800 wild species and section out the captivity of elephants, nice apes, large cats, bears, wolves, seals, walruses and harmful reptiles. If this turns into legislation, it can show Canada’s dedication to enhancing animal welfare protections.

Each of those developments additionally replicate a rising public opinion that conserving animals and different creatures in captivity is improper. Clearly, the creation of a brand new aquarium right now is a step within the improper route.

Kathryn M. Campbell is a professor of criminology on the College of Ottawa. She is a member of the Canadian Animal Law Study Group and resides in Montreal.