{"id":208234,"date":"2025-10-12T20:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T20:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/208234\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T20:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T20:20:09","slug":"releasing-marinelands-belugas-into-the-wild-beats-the-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/208234\/","title":{"rendered":"Releasing Marineland\u2019s belugas into the wild beats the alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life in the state of nature is \u201cnasty, brutish and short,\u201d according to English philosopher Thomas Hobbes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why 30 captive-born beluga whales at the Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ont., should be set free \u2014 maybe in Canada\u2019s northern waters \u2014 rather than be put down like a sick, old dog.<\/p>\n

For weeks, people around the world have been captivated by the plight of the last whales living at the financially troubled tourist attraction that says it can no longer afford to keep them.<\/p>\n

Canadians\u2019 values have shifted and people have lost interest in packing up the family and driving across the country to see whales swim around in a fish bowl.<\/p>\n

A news story<\/a> by our Nunavik reporter Dominique Gen\u00e9 exploring the possibility of moving the whales is one of the most widely read Nunatsiaq News articles of the year. As of Thursday, more than 36,000 people had clicked on it \u2014 two-thirds the combined population of Nunavut and Nunavik.<\/p>\n

Jason Etok, an Inuk man originally from Nunavik, wrote to Nunatsiaq News last week, suggesting the whales \u2014 that were bred in captivity \u2014 be relocated to the waters of Hudson Bay, Ungava Bay or the Gulf of St. Lawrence, belugas\u2019 natural habitat.<\/p>\n

A long shot? Definitely. Impossible? No, according to the director of the Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Hopefully it\u2019s not too late by the time you read this to bolster the case of Etok\u2019s idea.<\/p>\n

The argument against releasing the whales is that they wouldn\u2019t survive because they were born in captivity. All their lives, thy\u2019ve been in a tiny concrete tank, surrounded by people who could reach out and pet them, and having food supplied by human trainers.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s an overly simple idea, but if the belugas were released, they would at least have a chance at survival.<\/p>\n

Activists say it\u2019s inhumane to keep whales in captivity because they are highly intelligent animals. If they\u2019re that intelligent, who\u2019s to say that they wouldn\u2019t be able to adapt to the change of living in the wild?<\/p>\n

If they die in the wild, well \u2026 a lot of animals don\u2019t survive in the wild, where life can be nasty, brutish and short. If they\u2019re left at Marineland, their certain deaths appear to be imminent.<\/p>\n

Someone should ask the whales about the choice between being euthanized or taking their chances on being released into the wild and having to fend for themselves.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Another argument against releasing the whales is that they would be vulnerable to predators, including, possibly, Inuit hunters. Again \u2026 life can be nasty, brutish and short.<\/p>\n

The biggest argument against relocating the whales is the cost. Marineland pleaded for the federal government to pick up the bill for taking care of the whales for the rest of their natural lives. Ottawa said Marineland is a private business; the cost is its problem.<\/p>\n

No question Marineland has botched the handling of its belugas. But the government comes to the aid of other private companies when they go belly up and can\u2019t afford to take care of loose ends as they wind down.<\/p>\n

Inuit organizations that Etok said could lead a solution (think Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Makivvik Corp., or Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.) have deep pockets. Chipping in on the relocation of Marineland\u2019s belugas could be Inuit-led lessons to all Canadians about the respect for wildlife and that life doesn\u2019t have to be nasty, brutish and short.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life in the state of nature is \u201cnasty, brutish and short,\u201d according to English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-208234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}