{"id":126774,"date":"2026-07-12T15:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/126774\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:45:17","slug":"us-aquariums-to-rescue-28-beluga-whales-from-canadas-marineland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/126774\/","title":{"rendered":"US aquariums to rescue 28 beluga whales from Canada&#8217;s Marineland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gettyimages-1192556575.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-653d32e2=\"\">FILE: Beluga whales seen through the glass of Marineland&#8217;s underwater viewing area in Arctic Cove on Friday July 20, 2012. (Tara Walton\/Toronto Star via Getty Images) <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The federal government has approved the emergency rescue of 28 beluga whales from Marineland, a once-popular theme park near Niagara Falls in Canada that closed in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Canada\u2019s Department of Fisheries and Oceans has endorsed the rescue plan, which avoids having to euthanize the 30 whales still living at the shuttered theme park.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Beluga whales to be rescued from Marineland  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"livenowfox.com\/news\/us-aquariums-rescue-28-beluga-whales-from-canadas-marineland\" origination_station=\"LNFX\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/hamilton\/marineland-beluga-whales-rescue-emergency-9.7262853\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CBC<\/a>, 28 whales will be moved to four accredited aquariums in the U.S.: Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, SeaWorld in San Diego, California, and SeaWorld in San Antonio, Texas. The other two whales will be sent to aquariums in Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livenowfox.com\/news\/dead-pregnant-endangered-fin-whale-found-bow-alaska-cruise-ship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Dead, pregnant endangered fin whale found on bow of Alaska cruise ship<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Timeline: It\u2019ll take a few weeks to get the whales moved. They\u2019ll have to be cleared by Canadian veterinarians before they can travel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"livenowfox.com\/news\/us-aquariums-rescue-28-beluga-whales-from-canadas-marineland\" origination_station=\"LNFX\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we don&#8217;t know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">It\u2019s unclear what will happen to the whales if they\u2019re not cleared for transfer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"livenowfox.com\/news\/us-aquariums-rescue-28-beluga-whales-from-canadas-marineland\" origination_station=\"LNFX\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The rescue comes more than eight months after the Canadian government denied Marineland\u2019s request to send the 30 belugas to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, an aquarium in China. Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said in October that the decision was consistent with a 2019 law making it illegal to use whales and dolphins in entertainment shows or keep them in captivity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livenowfox.com\/news\/whale-center-rescue-effort-controversy-found-dead-off-denmark-coast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Whale at center of rescue effort controversy found dead off Denmark coast<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The law that banned whale captivity did not apply to the existing population of captive whales at Marineland, but the park had to comply with another part of the law that forbade breeding.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">In October, Marineland said it would be forced to euthanize the whales if a transfer wasn\u2019t approved.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Why did Marineland close?\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"livenowfox.com\/news\/us-aquariums-rescue-28-beluga-whales-from-canadas-marineland\" origination_station=\"LNFX\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Marineland announced it was for sale in early 2023 and closed to the public in late summer 2024 because of financial struggles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Twenty whales \u2014 one killer whale and 19 belugas \u2014 have died at the park since 2019, according to a database created by The Canadian Press news agency based on internal records and official statements.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"livenowfox.com\/news\/us-aquariums-rescue-28-beluga-whales-from-canadas-marineland\" origination_station=\"LNFX\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;We recognize we can no longer provide the long-term care these animals require, and we believe this rescue. . .is in the whales&#8217; best interest,&#8221; Marineland said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: This article includes information from CBC and previous FOX Local reporting. FOX\u2019s Chris Williams contributed.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/pets-animals\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pets and Animals<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FILE: Beluga whales seen through the glass of Marineland&#8217;s underwater viewing area in Arctic Cove on Friday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,116,31690],"class_list":["post-126774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-pets-animals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}