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Six captive belugas from Canada are now swimming in the waters of their new homes in the United States.
Marineland and a consortium of U.S. aquariums helped move the first batch of whales in a long, complex process that began Monday afternoon at the closed Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction.
Marineland’s external legal counsel, Andrew Burns, said the move went better than expected, with no major hiccups lifting the whales out of their pools and placing them in tanks on transport trucks, and no issues in a two-hour convoy ride to the airport.
A spokesperson for the U.S. consortium, Johnny Ford of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, said four whales arrived there in the early hours of Tuesday morning and are doing well.
Years after Marineland closed to the public, the aquarium has started the process of relocating some beluga whales to facilities in the U.S. and Spain.
He said two other belugas went on to SeaWorld in San Antonio and ended up in those pools later Tuesday morning.
Marineland has said it is running out of money and can no longer care for the whales and is in the process of an unprecedented move to get 24 more belugas and four dolphins out of the park.
