Last week, the team at our Marine Mammal Rescue Centre treated a young harbour seal who had been shot in the face and seriously injured by birdshot. Under anaesthetic, she was examined by veterinary ophthalmologist Dr. Jacqueline Pearce, of the Vancouver Animal Emergency and Referral Centre, to determine if she has any vision remaining. This information will […]

In 2002, an orphaned killer whale, Springer (A73), brought together scientists, government officials and concerned citizens in the first orca recovery effort of its kind. Seventeen years after Springer’s rescue and release, she continues to roam freely with her northern resident pod of killer whales and has two calves of her own. Now that Springer’s […]

Megan Strobel’s favourite animals show her roots. As a Florida girl, she grew up watching bottlenose dolphins from shore. As an undergraduate student at University of Florida, she worked on another favourite animal: manatees, Florida state’s marine mammal. “During the winter, wild manatees come into the springs for warm water. As part of the large […]

The Vancouver Aquarium, as part of a cross-border team of organizations and institutions, is on a mission to save an ailing Southern Resident Killer Whale. On August 9, Vancouver Aquarium’s head veterinarian Dr. Martin Haulena was on the response team that reached the ailing Southern Resident killer whale J50, aka Scarlet, in Canadian waters. Dr. […]

Much like humans, mothers play an important role in killer whale culture. Killer whales are highly social, group-living animals whose social structure revolves around females. For some members of the animal kingdom, the challenges of motherhood are relatively fleeting; after a few short weeks of care, their offspring can fend for themselves. Motherhood is not […]

Last August, the Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre received a call about  a distressed fish on the beach in Stanley Park, Vancouver. Luckily, the Vancouver Aquarium’s Veterinary and Fishes teams was only 350 metres away at Ocean Wise’s headquarters and headed down to the stranded animal quickly. They found a female shark entangled in […]

It was an incredible feat of determination on both the part of the animal and his rescuers when Chester the false killer whale survived his stranding on a windswept beach near Tofino in July 2014. Although he had less than a 10 per cent chance of making it, the little calf would not only live […]

Hardy, the male sea otter pup rescued in June from waters near northern Vancouver Island, has now moved into the nursery at the Vancouver Aquarium, an Ocean Wise initiative, to continue receiving 24-hour care from the sea otter experts on site. The fuzzy-faced pup was estimated to be two to four weeks old when he […]