The Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Center is located at the Main Street Docks, which is a very inconspicuous location at the Vancouver ship yard terminals and is fenced off by a green gate for privacy.  For over 40 years the facility has been rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing sick, abandoned, and injured marine mammals.  They mainly take care of harbor seals, but will also take sea lions, elephant seals, sea otters, dolphins, whales, and porpoises.  On our tour they only had harbor seals but earlier in the season they had taken care of an elephant seal named, ‘Cow’, who was released back into the wild and a porpoise named, ‘Daisy’, that was deemed not fit to be released and is now in the Vancouver Aquarium.

Also, every year the names of the marine mammals at the Center are picked by a theme.  This year’s theme was ‘animals’ so the seals had names such as: Human, Deer, and Wolf.  Other years themes have been famous people and countries.

Harbor Seal

I was very impressed by the cleanliness and friendly staff at the location.  Our guide, Kristin, was interesting and informative and took her time to answer the many questions our group had.  Overall, the tour was about 1 hour in length and we had about 15 people on our tour of all ages.  Kristin said that this year the Rescue center had 95 harbor seals and last year 120.  Also, the busiest time for the Rescue Center is in the Summer after the babies are born in the Spring.  For our tour there were no very young babies and a lot of the Seals were getting ready to be released back in the wild.

Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Center

The tour started off in inside of the facility where 13-14 boxes of herring are prepared for the animals everyday.  The animals are fed four times a day.  The center relies heavily on their over 100 Volunteer staff for fish preparation, feeding the seals, and cleaning the tanks.  Kristin pointed out that one of their Volunteers even has a Helicopter and volunteers his time and gas to fly to various locations in British Columbia to pick up seals/other mammals to be rescued.

Volunteer staff getting the Herring ready for feeding time

It was pretty interesting that Kristin explained about Vancouver Aquarium’s 24 hr Seal Hotline at, 604-258-SEAL, where you can talk to staff if you see a seal or another marine mammal you might be concerned is in distress, anywhere in British Columbia.  Kristin was saying it is normal for harbor seal Mothers to leave their pups on rocks while they go to catch fish and if you see a potentially ‘abandoned’ pup to observe it for 24 hours to see if the Mom comes back.  It is not normal to be able to see the seal’s hip or back bones, it means the seal is too thin.

Usually, the seals come in to the Rescue Center dehydrated, malnourished and Hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and can have such low blood sugars they can even have complications just like humans, such as seizures.  The Rescue Center also has a medical area where they provide Veterinary care such as: physical exams, minor surgical procedures, anesthesia, ultrasound, and radiography.  Some interesting tips are, if you do find a baby seal that needs to be rescued NEVER put a damp towel on it as it can cause further hypothermia and do not feed it as it could make any complications worse without being assessed by a Veterinarian.

Veterinary Treatment Area

Seal Tanks

The Rescue Center is divided into three area for their Seals.  We first viewed the Quarantine Area where seals that needed extra care or had some sort of infection and needed to be isolated in their own tank.  Kristin explained that often the baby seals will come into the Center with their umbilical cords still attached and need to be bottle fed by staff during this time until they are strong enough to eat whole fish.

Harbor Seal with iodine (causing the red color) over his lanced abscesses on his face and body

Partially Blind Seal

The second area was the non-quarantine tanks that had one or two seals in them based on the seal’s weight and these seals were able to eat whole fish.  The staff fed the seals in this area while we were visiting, which was neat, but I was not able to take any good pictures of seal with a fish, they were too fast!  Kristin reminded us to be careful as seals do bite and can be more aggressive when they were getting fed.

Me and a Harbor Seal

The  third area was made up of big tanks where the seals were closer to being released and put into groups so they were able to socialize and have competition catching fish.  The seals in the big tanks were close to 18 kg which is the ideal weight the Rescue Center uses for them to be released.  The Marine Rescue Center has about an average of a 65% release rate back into the wild.  Some of their mammals that cannot be released into the wild are too injured, have low intellectual functioning, or have been rescued more than once.  The mammals that cannot be released go to Aquariums.  Every mammal released from the Center has a tag on it so it can be identified.

Seal Tank with Vancouver’s North Shore Mountains in the background

Our Guide, Kristin, and Harbor Seal ‘Big Mama’

I really enjoyed my tour of the Rescue Center and would love to go again especially in June or July, earlier in their season to see the really young babies.  The Rescue Center is open until October doing by-donation tours with groups if you contact them.  Or, if you want to Volunteer your time or donate money go through the Vancouver Aquarium’s website.

Watching the Seals

An Unknown Author expressing local resistance by writing on a Woodward’s Sign prior to it’s Deconstruction in 2006 – Photo by Eyeye

On the heels of my last post, Gentrification of Vancouver’s DTES and the impact on our local Hospitals, I wanted to quickly mention the recent completion of Woodward’s first of two towers this September 2009 ready to sell on Vancouver’s housing market.  I was inspired by this image as it is truly speaks about Gentrification in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side.  I came across this image while browsing for photos on Flickr for my last post.  The image was copywrited but I asked to use it and its owner, Eyeye,  kindly gave me permission.   Eyeye says on his Flickr page that it’s actually a quote of the song “Common People” by the band Pulp.  This picture was taken in June 2006 prior to the Woodwards building being turned into Condos and Commercial space.  Unfortunately, my other post had already gone live but I was so struck by this image I wanted to mention it.

If you are interested more in what the Woodward’s condos look like now there is a great article by Sebastian Albrecht, in the Vancouver Observer with neat pictures of what the suites look like now.

Homeless – Photo by Ed Yourdon

Personally, working as a Registered Nurse in our city’s biggest Hospital I am confronted with this issue of displaced people from the DTES everyday I go to work.  New condos and a lack of subsided housing for the poor and mentally ill have made our DTES residents flock to our local hospitals, desperately asking  for the Hospital System to provide them with some sort of housing.   They will often have multiple presentations at the Hospital with drug overdoes, bed bug infestations and/or suicide attempts in hopes of getting admitted to the Hospital for a safe place to sleep, medications and food for a few days.

Hospital Bed – Photo by bennylin0724

The real estate in the DTES is considered desirable as it has magnificent views of the North Shore Mountains and is close to the ocean and Vancouver’s downtown core.  Housing in Vancouver is notoriously expensive and now local developers have focused their eye to the DTES community to build new Condominiums and ‘revitalize’ parks and spaces such as Oppenheimer Park and the Woodward’s Building.

Buildings Gastown and DTES – Photo by ecstaticist

With the 2010 Olympic Games less than six months away and new buildings being built in Gastown and Crosstown our DTES residents are slowly being forced to move more East.  In addition, Vancouver is in the global spotlight, with the draw of the 2010 Olympic Games and our geographical location of a temperate West Coast climate, a migration of displaced homeless Canadians from other Provinces arrive in Vancouver daily, seeking respite in our streets and hospitals.

I truly believe that displacing DTES residents by Gentrifying their Community is not the answer to conquer homelessness and poverty.  We need to work as a community because no matter how hard Vancouver tries to forget or throw money at the DTES, its residents will not disappear, nor, will it force these residents forever out of Vancouver, because, this is their home too.

Homeless, shivering and sleeping under a piece of plastic from the November Vancouver Rain – Photo by Quinet

I have been wanted to talk about this topic for quite some time as I am directly affected by it on my commute to work; the City of Vancouver’s trail run of the Burrard Bridge Bike Lane that started July 13th, 2009.  The City has been given the Bicycle Lane up to 6 months for the trial and keeping stats on pedestrian, cyclist, and motorist traffic.  Historically, the same trial run was also initiated 10 years ago and was shut down after less than a week because of altercations between cyclists and motorists.

Previously, before the bicycle trial this past July there were 3 lanes for North and Southbound motorist traffic for a total of 6 lanes on the bridge.  The Pedestrians and Cyclists had to share the relatively small sidewalks on bot sides of the bridge.  Now, with the Bicycle Lanes implemented Southbound (leaving Vancouver) motorists only have 2 lanes and Northbound Motorists (coming into Vancouver) have 3 lanes.  Just shutting down one lane does not sound like a big deal but what the City of Vancouver it not taking into account is the traffic patterns they have changed merging into the bridge.

Northbound End of Burrard Bridge Bike Lane – Photo by Ariane Colenbrander

My main complaint is really the way the City designed the Vancouver side of the traffic pattern – it is horrible!

Going Southbound motorists only have one lane all the way down Beach Ave. funneling onto the bridge and living in the West End I have seen motorist traffic idling for 5-7 blocks down Beach Ave. creating traffic and more fumes from cars.

Going Northbound from Kitsalino is relatively unaffected except for when you get to the Vancouver side of the bridge and this where it gets messy.  As a motorists I am now merging with cyclists on to the road and to get down to Beach Ave. to get into the West End is very tricky as you have to consider the bike lane when making a right turn and not hit any cyclists.

Now, as a motorist and I would like to note I drive a Toyota Yaris which is not a horrible CO2 polluter.  Personally, I don’t feel comfortable riding a bike in the City of Vancouver unless it is on a bicycle only paths as I had a really serious accident in 2001 where I was hospitalized for over 2 weeks I can’t mentally handle or financially afford to be hit by a car.  So, as a motorist I take extra special care around cyclists and some of them are great, but some of them are angry and wreckless.  They will weave inbetween car traffic without a helmet ESPECIALLY heading southbound on Pacific Ave over the bridge.

As a motorist I feel as though the Vancouver City and the Vancouver Police Department are not regulating the cyclists.  I know the City did increase the fine of not wearing a helmet this year but I find it outrageous that over half of the cyclists I see on the Burrard Bridge are NOT wearing a helmet.  As a Cyclist I realize this is very frustrating as well and they have been organizing events such as Critical Mass to raise awareness and empower cyclists.

Lions Gate Bridge Critical Mass 2009 – Photo by Random Dude

In my opinion instead of complaining about this whole situation what are some solutions????   I do have some ideas:

1) I have heard of a proposal to have a pedestrian and cyclist only bridge built alongside of the west side of the Burrard Bridge.  This is in my opinion the best long term solution for the safety and sanity of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

2) Dedicate each side of the Burrard Bridge to have cyclists and pedestrians and not mix them.  Maybe a ‘cheap’ solution for the Vancouver City would be to make a mini bridge’s above the car traffic going east to west on both sides of the Burrard Bridge so respective cyclist/pedestrian traffic can cross to get to their destinations.

It seems that no one is really collaborating together on this Bicycle Lane and it’s a very, Us VS Them, mentality and really no one is winning.

What are your thoughts….

Burrard Bridge, Vancouver, BC – Photo by Tyler Ingram

I never tire of watching the ocean, walking the Stanley Park Seawall, exploring the trails in Stanley Park and the activity going on in English Bay.  The Vancouver Parks Board always does an amazing job of the flower beds and plants here in English Bay and it is enjoyable seeing the changing seasons as well.

WINTER

The Christmas tree display of lights and Polar Bear Swim in the Winter.

HDR of Sunset Beach Snowfall – Photo by Tyler Ingram

Christmas Tree English Bay – Photo by Tyler Ingram

Jenny, Tyler and I English Bay Polar Bear Swim New Year’s Day 2009

SPRING

The pretty cherry blossoms blooming and tulip display in the Spring.

Cherry Blossom English Bay – Photo by My Photo Album 2007

Tulips English Bay – Photo by Tyler Ingram

SUMMER

Swimming, sunsets and Fireworks Displays in the Summer

HDR Slide in English Bay – Photo by Tyler Ingram

Sunset English Bay – Photo by Tyler Ingram

Fireworks English Bay – Photo by Tyler Ingram

FALL

Fall leaves, rain and the blustery wind

Rainy Fall Day English Bay – Photo by New Sox

Blustery Wind English Bay Seawall – Photo by Tyler Ingram

I’m ready for another year….=)

Me at English Bay September 2009 – Photo by Tyler Ingram