Montreal is well know for being a great city. But have you ever wondered why there isn’t an aquarium in the city? No? Ok, cool. Well, it’s pretty fucked up to be honest, so I’m going to tell you.
Basically, Montreal had a massive aquarium back in the 60s, which was built on St. Helen’s Island. It was 3 acres in size, housed around 1,600 animals (including reptiles, fish and amphibians) and attracted around half a million visitors annually at it’s busiest period. One of the most popular areas of the aquarium was the dolphin pool, where visitors could get up close and personal with these intelligent creatures.
But it was the beloved dolphins who eventually became a major factor in the closure of the aquarium. It wasn’t their fault, of course – more the fault of the locals.
A worker’s strike was arranged which was intended to better the lives of the local citizens – many workers felt they were being underpaid and that their working. This included 6 of the dolphin trainers from the aquarium.
The thing is, the trainers just kind of left the dolphins. They’d become used to performing for crowds and getting their daily rewards, and suddenly that was taken away from them. The dolphins were still being given food by interim feeders, but they all refused to eat any of the food given to them.
The strike lasted 41 days, and all the aquarium management could do was watch as their dolphins wasted away into nothing as they continued their hunger strike.
The trainers were eventually given permission to return to the aquarium to feed the dolphins (over a month later), but by this point it was too late.
Most of the dolphins died, leaving the aquarium without its best attraction.
Photo from expo67.ca