It’s one of Vancouver’s most popular attractions for locals and tourists alike—the Vancouver Aquarium originally opened doors on June 15, 1956, and its anniversary is coming up.
To mark the milestone, we’re looking back on how it has evolved over the last few decades.
Not only is the aquarium a great place to spend the day—it is also a centre for research, conservation and marine life rehabilitation.
When it first opened in 1956, it was Canada’s first official public aquarium and has now become the largest in the country and one of the five largest in North America.
The Vancouver Aquarium was the first in the world to capture and display an orca whale, named Moby Doll, in 1964.
In 1996, the Vancouver Park Board established a bylaw that prevents the aquarium from capturing the animals from the wild, they could then only obtain them from other facilities where they were born in captivity or captured before 1996.
In 2001, the last orca whale was moved to SeaWorld in San Diego, where she later died due to a respiratory illness.
For more information on the Vancouver Aquarium, visit their website.
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