Marineland: this is how the 4 remaining belugas were transported by plane to the closed water park in Ontario

An imposing and delicate international rescue operation has sealed the fate of a colony of marine mammals in extreme danger. The Marineland water park, located in Niagara Falls, Ontario, has permanently closed its doors due to running out of management funds and frequent legal challenges related to animal welfare.

Without more resources to guarantee the nutrition and health subsistence of the creatures, the dramatic hypothesis of the suppression of around thirty specimens arose. Faced with the absence of suitable facilities on Canadian territory, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada have granted extraordinary permits for the emergency transfer of 28 belugas to four facilities in the United States and two specimens to Oceanogràfic València in Spain.

The first phase: the collection of four females

Now new details emerge of how the transfer occurred. Dan Ashe, president and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, coordinated the complex logistics chain. The first phase of the plan allowed the rescue of a group made up of four females: twenty-seven year old Acadia, twenty-six year old Osiris and Sierra, and twenty-one year old Lillooet. The four specimens, linked by a deep social bond that made them a close-knit sub-group, were taken from the tanks of the Canadian structure using special fabric harnesses and lifted by crane into thermal containers filled with cold water.

The flight to Chicago and the beginning of the rehabilitation process

The giants of the sea were transported by road to Toronto-Pearson International Airport and then loaded stable inside a Boeing 777 cargo plane of the Qatar Airways company. During the entire flight to Chicago-O’Hare International Airport, the whales were cared for by a team of veterinarians and marine mammal medicine experts. Having landed at their destination just before 2 am, the belugas finally entered the Abbott Oceanarium at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

Dr. Karisa Tang, principal veterinarian and vice president of animal health at the Illinois Hub, and Charlie Jacobsma, director of animal behavior and training, confirmed the initiation of rigorous isolation and monitoring procedures to evaluate the adaptation, nutrition and social interactions of the new arrivals. To facilitate the acclimatization process and avoid sources of stress, several sections of the structure have been temporarily closed to the public. In the next few days, the Chicago water park could welcome another six specimens, while the rest of the group will be located between the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and the SeaWorld parks in San Diego and San Antonio.

A tragedy avoided, but no more dolphinariums!