The Vancouver Aquarium is on public land, in Stanley Park, Vancouver's greatest treasure. Stanley Park which is maintained solely by Vancouver tax payers. Over the years the Aquarium has received hundreds of thousands of tax payers' dollars through generous government grants. All citizens are therefore ethically responsible for keeping these animals in captivity.

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, elected by the citizens, has the ultimate authority to grant or refuse permission for the Aquarium to maintain its whale and dolphin captivity program.

Currently, the Parks Board opposes the capture of whales and dolphins in the wild, but nevertheless permits the Vancouver Aquarium to "acquire from other institutions captive cetaceans caught from the wild prior to September 16, 1996 or born into captivity at any time...." This means that the captivity program can be carried on in perpetuity.

By opposing the capture while sanctioning the captivity the Parks Board is side stepping its moral responsibility. The rationale must be that whales and dolphins born into captivity do not suffer, or suffer less than whales taken from the wild. Supposedly, millions of years of evolution is suddenly erased. Allowing the captivity to continue is turning a blind eye to the suffering of these imprisoned animals.