Vancouver Aquarium Closing Gates to the Public as Losses Mounts due to COVID-19

The Vancouver Aquarium announced this Monday that the aquarium is closing its gates to the public as losses mount due to COVID-19.   More than 200 staff members are being laid off, primarily from the operations team, in an effort to save money after incurring of financial loss over last few months.

The Ocean Wise Conservation Association, which runs the facility, said in a statement that all public programming will be “stopped” until further notice as of Sept. 7.

The closure will affect dozens of its full-time to part-time to casual workers as they lose their jobs. The recent layoffs announced are in addition to more than 330 people who already lost their jobs at the aquarium in the early spring when the restrictions were implemented to prevent the spread of pandemic.

“Staff reductions were an incredibly difficult decision and one we truly hoped to avoid,” Christian Baxter, Board Chair of Ocean Wise, wrote in the statement.

To our cherished #VanAqua family, friends and community. Today we shared the news that the Vancouver Aquarium will be temporarily pausing public programming after September 7, 2020. While closed @OceanWise will focus on transformation: https://t.co/TC9PyOU69I pic.twitter.com/KJu3iig5iT

— Vancouver Aquarium (@vanaqua) August 31, 2020

The statement on Monday added that specialized staff, such as veterinarians and biologists, will remain on staff to care for animals at the facility.

The aquarium reopened in June with $2 million in federal government emergency funding after a three-month closure since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Ocean Wise has said it costs about $1 million per month to feed and care for the 70,000 animals at the aquarium.

In order to avoid bankruptcy, the aquarium said its board is planning to try to create a new business model “that will be both financially viable in light of the pandemic and also accelerates Ocean Wise’s mission of ocean conservation.”

“Under these difficult circumstances, transforming the aquarium is the most responsible thing we can do,” said Lasse Gustavsson, President and CEO of Ocean Wise.

The aquarium has the distinction of being the first public aquarium in the country that opened in 1956.