Crisis Ecology at the Vancouver Aquarium: Putting Octopuses to Work for Conservation

In an era of accelerating ecological crises, captive care has emerged as a triage site where nonprofit conservation organizations attempt to resuscitate species and ecosystems rapidly disappearing from the planet. Using the Vancouver Aquarium’s octopus exhibit as a case study, Mollie Holmberg examines how care, domination and violence intersect in complex ways as people use this exhibit and non-endangered species like the Giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) to implement conservation work.

Mollie is a second-year MA student in the Department of Geography studying how interactions between scientific practices and power impact global ecosystems and health equity. Her current work uses the octopus exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium to examine the fraught role of captivity in conservation. Before coming to UBC, she earned her undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Washington and worked on future health scenarios at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.