Five “Rescued” Belugas from Canada Are Now Dead

By Mark J. Palmer

So far, of the thirty beluga whales left stranded at the Marineland park in Canada when the park closed several years ago, five have now died in the parks they were moved to (along with one captive dolphin).

Four of the belugas (along with a resident beluga) died at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, while a fifth rescued beluga died in Spain at Oceanografic Valencia, along with the dolphin.

Shedd originally transferred eight of the belugas to its tanks just a month ago, as part of a larger so-called rescue effort conducted with two SeaWorld Parks and the Georgia Aquarium, along with Shedd and Oceanografic Valencia.

Shedd and others have claimed the belugas were very ill before the transfers and the new tank surroundings added stress to already sick whales.

But this ignores the fact that for purposes of transporting marine mammals, both Shedd and Marineland were required to certify that the belugas were healthy for the transport.

Marineland had a terrible record of animal abuse over the years, but the Canadian government refused requests to take action against the park. At one point, Marineland even threatened to euthanize the belugas unless they got payments from the Canadian government! The government caved and provided them with funding, despite the fact that Marineland sits on property worth millions of dollars, which, without the marine mammals, can now be developed.

The Canadian government violated its own legislation indicating that belugas were not to be relocated to places for commercial purposes, and chose not to work with the Whale Sanctuary Project toward finishing the development of a seaside sanctuary in Nova Scotia.

Belugas in the wild can live 35 to 50 years, possibly more. (The age of cetaceans in the wild is always hard to gauge.)

The five whales that have died after the transfer were aged 18-27.

The belugas of Marineland have traded one bad captivity situation for another nightmare existence in concrete tanks, resulting in early deaths. Captivity kills and must end for all dolphins and whales.

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Help the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute end captivity of whales and dolphins. They are too wide-ranging, too intelligent, and they lose their close family ties when confined to concrete coffins. The history of cetacean captivity is riddled with dead dolphins and whales. The practice of keeping these animals in small tanks must end. Please donate today to help belugas, orcas, and dolphins! Thank you.