In 2019, Canada approved the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, which prohibited the wild capture, captivity, and breeding of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Soon after, The Whale Sanctuary Project announced plans to build North America's first whale sanctuary near Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia. They have now completed their Visitor and Operations Center and they plan to welcome their first whales by 2023.
It is estimated that there are about 200 belugas and 50 orcas in marine parks and aquariums around the world. Almost all of them were raised in captivity and would not likely survive in the wild. The new sanctuary will provide a product setting where the inhabitants can frolic in an ocean setting hundreds of times larger than the largest tanks in the marine parks.