North America’s first whale sanctuary is taking shape in rural Nova Scotia
Global News
The Whale Sanctuary Project is expected to officially open its visitor and operations centre in Sherbrooke, N.S.
The plan to build North America’s first wild refuge for whales retired from marine parks was poised to take a big step forward Friday in a remote corner of northeastern Nova Scotia.
The Whale Sanctuary Project is expected to officially open its visitor and operations centre in Sherbrooke, N.S., marking the first time the U.S.-based conservation group has moved from the planning phase to actually building something.
“It’s a milestone,” Charles Vinick, the project’s executive director, said in an interview this week. “This really does show people that we are here, and we’ll be cutting the ribbon to show this is in fact our home, here in Nova Scotia.”
The new centre has been built in a renovated century home on the main street in Sherbrooke, a former timber and gold-mining town about 200 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
“It’s a good opportunity for a new business to come into the municipality,” said Greg Wier, the warden of the rural municipality that includes Sherbrooke. “For the most part, everybody is happy that it’s coming … I don’t think there’s any opposition.”
Wier said the public wants to see whales in their natural environment rather than in captivity.
“There’s a lot of public outcry for these whales being held in little pens,” he said in an interview this week.
The proposed 40-hectare, coastal sanctuary – to be enclosed by large underwater nets – is expected to be built next year south of Port Hilford, N.S., a 20-minute drive southeast of Sherbrooke. It will be as large as 50 Canadian football fields and about 300 times larger than the biggest tank in any marine park.
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