scrubbedexpat091

Vancouver Aquarium has been sold to US based tourism company Herschend Enterprises. The new owner has also agreed to donate 1% of its gross revenues to non-profit Ocean Wise. The deal will keep the Vancouver Aquarium from closing as it has been in financial difficulty since the pandemic began and has been closed since last fall. The new owner plans to rehire many of the former employees who were laid off.

The sale was a last resort as the aquarium was going to run out of cash reserves and would no longer be able to sustain its operations.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...sold-1.5988949

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanc...nd-enterprises

scrubbedexpat091

Based on the comments on the articles and reddit on this topic, seems people are not happy.

Although it would be ideal if the aquarium could have remained a local non-profit or locally owned for profit even, but seems there may not have been any interest from any Canadian entity? Government didn't seem to care, so suppose in tough times and facing closure the only option is to transfer ownership to an organization willing and able to take it on and keep it running.

Danny B

This is good news for the fish. They don't care who pays for their food

caretaker

I haven't been there since 1983, when they'd just opened the Amazon exhibit. A guide stood on the little bridge going across the "river", looked over at a bunch of shrieking kids someone had brought in, pointed down to the piranhas in the water and told me "This is our new petting pool."

scrubbedexpat091

It's honestly not the best aquarium out there, at least compared to what you will find in the US and elsewhere in the world.

Anyhow hopefully this will bring upgrades and improvements to the aquarium as this company has deeper pockets and has a successful track record, and the other 2 aquariums they own are pretty nice, modern facilities so hopefully they can transform the Vancouver Aquarium in the coming years.

But did sound like unless the aquarium was sold, it was going to go go under, they did receive small amounts of funds from the government last year but nowhere near enough to keep the aquarium above water.

dbd33

Heh!

I thought it was a nice enough place, better than the one in Chicago and the one at the Regent's Park zoo, not as good as Toronto, Baltimore, Amsterdam.

Tangram

You seem to be a fish connoisseur

dbd33

I like aquariums and travelled a lot for work. I've been to very many. I have a little tank in the kitchen, with a starfish



and lots of scratches in the glass.

bats

Vancouver Aquarium Uncovered
It's probably good for the inmates