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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/751527
RIGHT: ADAM BLASBERG DECEMBER/JANUARY 2017 BCBUSINESS 37 To the Rescue T here are no signs marking the Van- couver Aquarium's Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, and in fact the fork- lifts darting back and forth across the driveway seem to act as guards. Surrounded by the noise, movement and structures of water-related industry–storage facilities, Dumpsters, factories, ships and a battalion of orange container cranes lining the horizon–the low buildings of the facility on Burrard Inlet are huddled like a vulnerable fortress, outlined by a fence covered in plastic turf. Unlike much of the work done by the aquarium, which seeks to educate and engage as many people as possible, the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre–the only one of its kind in Canada, and among the five largest in the world– is almost covert. And that's just the way John Nightingale, the aquarium's CEO, likes it. "We don't need any people popping over fences or doing anything weird. We're here for them." He's talking about the two-dozen harbour seal pups, arranged in an array of blue plastic bins under a large white tent. The variety of colours, shapes and sizes of pups provides a quick picture of the diversity in the province's seal population (one of them, Poucette, is a striking blonde). All were abandoned or separated from their mothers in their early days, found some- where along B.C.'s coast and brought here by car, boat or helicopter. They get medical attention and learn to swim and feed. When they are assessed as ready to survive in the wild, they are taken back to the place where they stranded. About 70 per cent survive, and this year about 150 seals were rehabilitated and released. The centre, which opened in 1960, has rescued other animals as well: dolphins, harbour porpoises, an orca and turtles. It operates with a $500,000 budget and sits on land donated by the Port of Vancouver. Marine mammal rescue is somewhat of a thankless task–it's expensive work that falls outside the expertise of the SPCA and beyond the mandate of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. "There are people who say, 'Wait a minute, there are lots of harbour seals, how come you rescue them?'" says Nightingale. "Grey seals on the east coast are consid- ered pests." But as aquarium veteri- narian Marty Haulena points out, the seals are "incred- ibly good sentinels of our local ecosystem." Each one gets a physical exam upon arrival, and blood samples are taken throughout their stay; the bank of samples offers a unique opportunity for researchers to determine when a disease may have been introduced to B.C., to measure the animal's immunological response and to find clues to the disease's prevalence. "Each one of them gives us a little something back," he says. "They're going to help us learn a little more about their environment and even pathogens that affect humans. I call it their little price for coming in and get- ting helped out."–M.G. Ocean Center, a tropical reef aquarium, which he would then lead as its director for three years. In 1990, he took a job as deputy director of the New York Aquarium, on Coney Island, before deciding to return to the West Coast as CEO of the Vancouver Aquarium. Since taking the helm 23 years ago, Nightingale has turned the aquarium into the city's top tourist destination, with more than one million people gaz- ing into its dazzling tanks every year. Close to 150,000 schoolchildren through- out the province learn about aquatic life through aquarium visits, curriculum- based programs and the AquaVan mobile classroom. The work of its scientists in areas such as ocean contaminants and pollution, vulnerable species and habi- tats, and climate change impacts has been well-reported locally and achieved an international reputation. Long-estab- lished conservation efforts have engaged hundreds of thousands of people across the country—last year, 59,000 volun- teers picked up garbage from waterways as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up, and 650 restaurants and retail- ers promoted sustainable seafood as part of the Ocean Wise program. It also remains independent of gov- ernment support: in 2015, half of the aquarium's $37.5-million annual budget came from admissions, a third from its retail operations, and the rest from pro- grams, grants and donations, and inter- est on investments. This is something not