{"id":127132,"date":"2026-07-12T22:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/127132\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:27:06","slug":"30-beluga-whales-to-be-moved-from-marineland-park-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/127132\/","title":{"rendered":"30 beluga whales to be moved from Marineland park in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly three dozen beluga whales stuck at a shuttered Canadian theme park since 2024 are finally getting moved to aquariums in America and Spain thanks to a down-to-the-wire rescue.<\/p>\n

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week greenlit the emergency life-saving plan to spare the majestic creatures, which have been living at the closed-down Marineland park in Niagara Falls, Ontario.<\/p>\n

A friendly beluga whale greets an onlooker at Marineland park in Ontario, Canada. Toronto Star via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The park had said in October that it would be forced to soon euthanize the whales if a transfer wasn\u2019t approved, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Marineland park shut its doors to the public two years ago when major financial issues caused it to tank as it failed to provide adequate care for its animals. <\/p>\n

Twenty whales had ended up dead at the park since 2019, according to data obtained by the Canadian press<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thirty majestic beluga whales still live at the park despite it being closed in 2024. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis rescue effort will take several weeks to mobilize and complete, and the comfort and safety of the whales remains of the utmost importance,\u201d said a rep for the American aquarium consortium, an organization involved in the undertaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The current plan is to split the belugas up between five accredited aquariums<\/a>, with 28 headed to four US locations: the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and two SeaWorlds \u2014 one in San Diego and the other in San Antonio, according to the CBC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other two whales will be sent to Oceanogr\u00e0fic Val\u00e8ncia in Spain, the outlet reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

US officials last week finally cleared the way for the mammals\u2019 removal. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The whales will have to be cleared by Canadian veterinarians before they can be transferred, and dedicated care staff from the US aquariums will soon arrive at Marineland to assess the whales\u2019 well-being and make preparations for travel, the American consortium said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the belugas are cleared for travel by Canadian veterinarians, aquarium experts will accompany the animals to their new homes, where they will be met with diverse seafood to meet their nutritional needs, high quality environments with guaranteed water quality and onsite medical care should they require it at any time,\u201d the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The park was forced to close amid financial issues and questions about its animal care. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The announcement comes more than eight months after the Canadian government denied Marineland\u2019s request to send the 30 belugas to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, which is an aquarium in China.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joanne Thompson said that decision was consistent with a 2019 law making it illegal to use whales and dolphins in entertainment shows or keep them in captivity for that purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly three dozen beluga whales stuck at a shuttered Canadian theme park since 2024 are finally getting moved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42429,42430,17,8202,31671,42431,42205,221,29767,218],"class_list":["post-127132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-animal-rescue","tag-aquarium","tag-canada","tag-chicago","tag-georgia","tag-san-antonio","tag-seaworld","tag-us-news","tag-whales","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127132","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=127132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}