SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The first rescued beluga whales from Marineland of Canada have safely arrived at SeaWorld San Antonio as part of an international effort to relocate the park’s remaining whales to accredited facilities across North America.<\/p>\n
SeaWorld announced July 21 that the first group of rescued belugas completed the journey after traveling by truck and plane in specialized cold-water transport containers. Veterinarians, aquatic medicine specialists and animal care teams accompanied the whales throughout the trip, closely monitoring their health during the move.<\/p>\n
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, six whales were relocated during the first transfer. Four \u2014 Sierra, Acadia, Osiris and Lillooet \u2014 were taken to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, while Bertie Botts and Frankie were transported to SeaWorld San Antonio.<\/p>\n
SeaWorld said the relocation was carried out in partnership with Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited institutions, including Shedd Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium and Mystic Aquarium. The organizations said the effort is focused on providing the rescued whales with long-term care at their new homes.<\/p>\n
The relocation marks the first phase of a larger operation expected to move up to 30 beluga whales from Marineland, a Niagara Falls, Ontario, marine park that closed in 2024.<\/p>\n
The transfer follows months of discussions over the future of the park’s beluga population after Marineland experienced financial challenges. A proposal to send the whales to a marine park in China was rejected by Canadian officials over animal welfare concerns.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approved an emergency rescue plan after U.S. and Canadian officials determined relocating the whales to accredited aquariums was in the animals’ best interest.<\/p>\n
SeaWorld said additional relocations are expected in the coming weeks as veterinarians continue evaluating the remaining belugas for transport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The first rescued beluga whales from Marineland of Canada have safely arrived at SeaWorld San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-382770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}