Over the summer, Marineland transferred all of its remaining captive whales and dolphins to five destinations, after the federal government banned keeping captive whales in Canada in 2019.
The once-loved and now-defunct Ontario theme park’s remaining 30 belugas and four dolphins have been shipped to five different destinations across the U.S. and Spain, in the world’s largest transfer of the animals.
However, four belugas and one dolphin have since died, with the most recent death being on Sept. 24 at the Oceanogràfic de València in Spain, prompting questions about the impact of the transfers on their health and well-being.
Echo, a blind Black Sea bottlenose dolphin believed to be 30 years old, was sent to Oceanogràfic on Aug. 26 in an epic 19-hour voyage from the shuttered Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction. In a statement posted to social media, the facility explained Echo arrived at Oceanogràfic with severe vision problems and other medical issues that required individualized care.
His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he died overnight, the aquarium explained.
As for the whales, being transported is inherently very stressful for a beluga, said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal biology senior scientist at the Washington, D.C.-based Animal Welfare Institute.
“Transporting them is a process that has been well established for decades,” she said. “But what people have to understand is that to cetaceans, this process is very stressful.”
It’s also important to understand that psychological stress is “absolutely related” to physiological stress, Valeria Vergara, a marine mammal senior scientist with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation in Pender Island, B.C., told CBC News Network on Tuesday.
“Things like elevated stress hormones are known to suppress appetite,” Vergara said.
Here’s a look at what’s been going on.
Recent deaths raise questions
Four Marineland dolphins and two belugas were sent to Oceanogràfic on Aug. 26. Of those, so far, one dolphin and one beluga have died. Jelly Bean the beluga died last week. She had been “experiencing feeding difficulties,” the facility said.
Oceanogràfic is conducting necropsies on both animals, along with an examination by pathology experts at CEU Cardenal Herrera University in Valencia, to try to understand the cause of death.
“The other four animals rescued from Canada are doing well and remain under the care and monitoring of Oceanogràfic’s professional teams,” Oceanogràfic said.
Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium took in 10 beluga whales from the Niagara Falls-based park. Since then, three of them — Peekachu, Rain and, most recently, 26-year-old Osiris — have died, as has another whale, Beethoven, that was a longtime resident.
Peekachu died just over 10 days after arriving, on Aug. 25. Shedd said in a statement at the time that the beluga was dehydrated and wasn’t eating well, dying suddenly as teams worked to provide medicine and fluids. Then, Rain died Sept. 2, which Shedd described as “unexpected.”
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Osiris had been struggling with her health and “was not a consistent eater,” the aquarium said, as it announced her death Monday.
All of the beluga’s deaths are being investigated, but the results have not yet returned, Shedd said.
“When Shedd was asked to help with this rescue, we understood that these animals arrived with significant vulnerabilities and that the outcome for every individual could not be guaranteed,” the aquarium said in an update on its website Monday.
“That uncertainty does not lessen the heartbreak of Osiris’s loss, or our responsibility to examine it with scientific rigor and open-hearted transparency.”
Shedd has also said it’s concerned about the health of another recently moved whale, Secord, writing on Sept. 18 that the animal “has not yet been consistently taking in the amount of food teams would like to see.”
How belugas are faring at the other facilities
SeaWorld took in 16 Marineland belugas — 13 in San Antonio, Texas, and three in San Diego — and told CBC News on Thursday that they “continue to be in stable health.”
“Our animal care and veterinary teams … are closely monitoring the whales’ health and behaviour, including their eating, swimming and socialization patterns, as they continue to adjust to their new surroundings,” Dr. Chris Dold, chief zoological officer, told CBC News in a statement.
“These early signs are encouraging, but it would be premature to say these belugas are fully in the clear.”
Dold added that their “hearts go out to the animal care teams at Shedd Aquarium and Oceanogràfic Valencia.”
The Georgia Aquarium took in two Marineland belugas: Balor and Zephyr. In an update Sept. 18, the aquarium wrote that “both are integrating well with the other whales, interacting with trainers, and adjusting to their new habitat.”
The aquarium noted, however, that Zephyr recently had a decreased appetite, and Balor hasn’t been gaining weight as steadily as they would like.
“Changes like these are not entirely unusual for rescued animals as we learn more about their preferences and they adjust,” the aquarium wrote on Instagram.
‘In their minds, something is really, really wrong’
Vergara, the B.C. marine mammal scientist, says she’s not surprised at the news of the whales’ deaths. Belugas are long-living, extremely sociable and intelligent marine mammals who form long-term social bonds, she said.
“So, removing that mammal from an established social group and introducing it into an unfamiliar pod, into an unfamiliar pool with unfamiliar caretakers is probably a very significant source of psychological stress and pressure that would be very related to physiological manifestations.”
In addition, transporting a beluga is another huge stressor, said Rose, with the Animal Welfare Institute, who was interviewed before Osiris’s death was announced.
It involves putting the whale in a sling, then removing it from its tank with a crane. It is then put into a box that is partially filled with cold water.
Cetaceans — the group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises — are completely aquatic. They don’t come ashore unless they’re sick or dying, in a phenomenon known as stranding. Although filling the box partway is necessary to prevent aspiration, it also means the animal isn’t fully buoyant, making it believe it is stranded, Rose said.
“So, in their minds, something is really, really wrong. …. They never really seem to get used to it.”
Indeed, researchers have made similar findings. One 2012 study looked at the transport of seven belugas from Shedd to Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, more than 1,000 kilometres away, where they stayed for about eight or nine months while Shedd underwent renovations.
The transported belugas showed an increase in epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol, which are hormones involved in the stress response. (The study noted that more research in the area was needed.)
As sad as the outcome has been, Vergara says she wasn’t sure there was any other option, since Marineland couldn’t care for the belugas and they couldn’t be released into the wild after spending their lives in captivity.
“That would be like releasing your little chihuahua into the forest and saying, ‘Go fend for yourself.'”
Rose, who is also on the board of the Whale Sanctuary Project, which is building a cetacean sanctuary in Nova Scotia, said her issue is not with how transports are done, aside from how noisy they can be, but that the whales are moved — and kept captive — at all.
“It is not something these animals are suited for. Period.”
Previous deaths
Other relocated Marineland whales have died soon after being transported.
In 2021, Marineland moved five belugas to Mystic Aquarium. Two whales died within a year of the move, while a third died two years after the transfer. Similarly in those cases, there were conflicting explanations of the whales’ health: Mystic said they had pre-existing conditions, while Marineland said they were healthy when they left.
Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium is welcoming the first beluga whales rehomed out of Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ont. The transport plan could see many of the remaining whales at the former zoo and theme park moved to U.S. aquariums over the next few weeks.
Marineland permanently closed in 2024, and the 30 beluga whales have been living under the threat of euthanasia since last fall.
In this case, the U.S. government approved the emergency rescue of most of the Marineland belugas in July, given the defunct park was no longer able to care for them.
Before the animals’ transport began, Canada’s fisheries minister, Joanne Thompson, said she had taken reasonable steps to ensure their safety, including individual health assessments for each animal. After the recent deaths, her office has issued similar statements.
“The government of Canada has taken reasonable steps to ensure the safe rescue of the whales,” she told CBC on Friday, after the death of Jelly Bean in a Spanish aquarium, “including issuing CITES permits following a review of the transportation plan and issuing Fisheries Act authorizations following individual health assessments for each whale.”
“These animals are not healthy,” said Rose. “I am telling you now, this isn’t the end of it. I am predicting there will be more deaths.”
Her prognosis for the rest of the whales was grim.
“We’re in a — what do they call that? — a death watch.”
