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Canada’s last captive dolphins are leaving Marineland for a new home in Spain, part of international rescue efforts to relocate mammals including beluga whales from the shuttered park in Niagara Falls, Ont., over recent weeks.
However, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, one of the U.S. sites taking the belugas, said a whale relocated from Marineland two weeks ago has died.
Shedd Aquarium said Peekachu died suddenly Tuesday night after blood tests revealed the 23-year-old female was dehydrated.
The Chicago park, which has taken in eight belugas, said it provided care and fluids but could not save Peekachu, leaving staff who cared for the animal devastated. Marineland said it’s saddened by the death, but added that the rest of its whales are receiving the best treatment at Shedd.
Trainers worked over several hours Wednesday morning at Marineland to load four dolphins and two belugas into tanks on transport trucks that are en route to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport for the journey to Oceanografic Valencia in Spain.
Echo, Lida, Marina and Tsunami, the dolphins, will be joined by belugas Cleopatra and Jelly Bean.
The six belugas remaining in Marineland — the last captive whales in Canada — are soon set to head to an aquarium in the United States.
The largest collective move of captive whales and dolphins — 30 belugas and four dolphins — has been underway since mid-July as Marineland moves all of its animals off the property. The park is up for sale, and has said it is running out of money and can no longer afford to care for the animals.
It had originally sold all of its 30 belugas and four dolphins to an aquarium in China, but the federal government blocked the move, saying it violated the spirit of a 2019 law. That law bans whale and dolphin captivity, and doesn’t allow breeding and performances.
After Canadian Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson nixed the move to China, Marineland threatened to euthanize its whales unless the federal government provided an emergency infusion of cash.
The park then turned to a consortium of American and Spanish aquariums for help. Its belugas have also been shipped to SeaWorld locations in San Diego and San Antonio, Shedd Aquarium and the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.
