Lack of consent stalls plans for North America’s first whale sanctuary in Nova Scotia

An ambitious plan in Nova Scotia to build North America's first coastal refuge for captive whales may have hit a dead end.

An ambitious plan in Nova Scotia to build North America’s first coastal refuge for captive whales may have hit a dead end.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press reveal the non-profit Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP) has yet to secure approval from all five owners of property adjacent to where the group plans to build a huge, floating net enclosure for belugas and orcas retired from marine theme parks.

The documents, obtained through the province’s freedom of information law, state that the U.S.-based group won’t be granted a Crown lease for 81 hectares of land and water near Wine Harbour, N.S., unless the landowners grant unanimous consent.

Executive director Charles Vinick said Tuesday the $20-million project on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore — announced five years ago and supported by private donations — could be derailed.

“Conceivably, a person could stop the project from happening, even with the amount of support it has throughout the rest of the communities,” Vinick said in an interview from Arizona. “Many people feel that one or two people stopping a project of this nature … is really unfortunate and would be devastating for us.”

Vinick confirmed WSP has written consent from two of the five affected property owners. He said the group has been in touch with two of the three holdouts, but one of them has said “they are not going to agree.” The third landowner, a woman from Montreal, has not responded to WSP in any way.

In August, Vinick wrote a letter asking Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources to change the rules.

“Any slowdown in the momentum we now have could have life-or-death implications for the animals, who languish in their current environments,” Vinick’s letter says.