The Vancouver Aquarium is temporarily closed

The Vancouver Aquarium will be temporarily closed to the public starting March 17, 2020 and all programming will be cancelled as a preventative measure to help slow the spread of COVID-19 through our community.

The Government of Canada has urged all Canadians to stay home as much as possible. Following this direction, and with the health and safety of our staff, guests and animals top of mind, the Vancouver Aquarium will temporarily close to the general public and pause all other public programming and activities.

Until we can welcome you back, we encourage our community to visit the Vancouver Aquarium virtually via our live cams, social media and digital touchpoints. We look forward to getting back to our regularly scheduled programming as soon as it is reasonable to do so.

This was not an easy decision

We understand that our temporary closure has effects on visitors, members, staff and volunteers. We are taking steps to minimize the impacts as much as possible.

If you have already purchased tickets to visit the Vancouver Aquarium and were planning to use them in the immediate future, please email visitorexperience@ocean.org.

Any members with questions about the temporary closure can reach out to our membership department at members@ocean.org.

Our staff will continue to carry out our mission to care for marine life and inspire the global community to discover and explore our oceans. The Vancouver Aquarium is the Ocean Wise headquarters and many staff already work remotely. All staff who are set up to work remotely have been asked to do so to allow essential animal care, building operation and security staff to stay on site.

The wellbeing and care of our animals will remain a top priority for us, and our incredible animal care team will provide extra enrichment activities daily. You can continue to keep an eye on them virtually through our live cams.

What you can do 

There are proven actions that can help reduce the spread of COVID-19, and we encourage everyone to follow these steps as recommended by Health Canada:   

As a self-supporting, non-profit association, we are dependent on the revenue generated from our facility and the generosity of our donors to remain financially sustainable. We do not yet know the full implications this temporary closure will have on us. If you have the means to do so and would like to support us during this uncertain time, you can support our mission and work online.

As a science-based organization ourselves, we encourage everyone to refer to science-based sources of information on this virus. For additional information on preventing the spread of COVID-19 please visit the Government of Canada’s website. For more background information about COVID-19, please visit the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s website.

We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they available.

This remains a complicated and rapidly evolving situation, and one that reminds us all of our responsibility to look out and care for our collective community. We appreciate your cooperation and patience as we navigate this together.

Updated: March 16, 2020, 5 p.m.