Thirty beluga whales, a closed marine park and a ticking clock. That’s the very real scenario the beluga whales living at Marineland Canada found themselves in when the park closed in 2024 and could no longer take care of its residents.

The whales faced the threat of euthanasia if they could not safely be relocated.

Enter the heroes of our story: Representatives from Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited aquariums, along with their respective governments, teamed up to safely transport all 30 whales to aquariums in the United States and Spain in the largest marine mammal rescue and transport mission in history.

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'Air Beluga'

The logistics that have to go into a project like this can’t be overstated.

Cooperation was necessary every step of the way between the aquariums and the Canadian, Spanish and U.S. governments to pull off a mission of this scale.

That scale was amplified not only by the sheer number of animals needing transportation, but also by the fact that beluga whales are extremely large, heavy animals. Tofino, one of the whales now living at SeaWorld San Antonio and the last whale to leave Marineland, weighs more than 3,300 pounds.

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The planning stage for moving the whales took almost a year and involved countless meetings and experts from veterinary care to animal training.

And then there’s the actual move, which had to be conducted in stages, and covered a wide range of transportation: planes, cranes and automobiles.

The whales’ journey started by swimming into a stretcher that was lifted out of the water with the help of a crane and placed into an insulated transport box with a little water in it.

“They kind of hang out in the stretcher, and so after they get into that transport box they get put onto a truck, they go onto a plane. And then they fly to the particular location that they're going to,” explained Jason Jones, senior curator of animal well-being at Georgia Aquarium.

These whales got to travel in style: private plane, police escort and a host of attendants catering to their every need.

“The rescue plan we developed was focused on animal wellbeing in every way,” Eric Gaglione, vice president of zoological operations at Georgia Aquarium, said in a news release. “We were constantly asking ourselves — how can we make this significant transition as safe as possible and give the animals involved the best chance to thrive? We believe the plan we delivered accomplished exactly that.”  

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Ultimately, it took six weeks and six separate transports to get all of the whales to their new homes starting in July and going through August. The final whales left Marineland Canada on Aug. 31. 

Of the 30 beluga whales, 16 went to SeaWorld San Diego and SeaWorld San Antonio, 10 went to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, two went to Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and two crossed the Atlantic to Oceanogràfic in Valencia, Spain.

But the journey isn’t over once the whales arrive in their destinations. 

Balor and Zephyr, the two whales who were sent to Georgia Aquarium, were kept in a medical pool separate from the existing pod of four female beluga whales so the team could monitor them and determine when they were ready to meet their new pod-mates.

It turned out that they were ready the day after they arrived.

“We did have overnight observations on them throughout the evening and we saw the males going over to the gate and the females going over to the gate on the other side, nicely chirping and communicating through the gate and so based on that and what we were seeing behavior wise from the day before, we opted to mix them the next morning,” Jones said.

A quick fun side note that I would be remiss to not mention: Zephyr’s name is actually a weather word meaning “a gentle, mild breeze or a light west wind,” making him a certified weather whale (in my humble opinion).

On their way to happily ever after?

The receiving aquariums are now in the monitoring phase as they try to ensure that the whales are settling into their homes for the foreseeable future safely, a process that is expected to take several months.

“The rescues have experienced a major transition. Our teams are working around the clock, taking cues from each whale, and looking for opportunities to collect needed samples when they are most comfortable, while continuing to build trust along the way,” said Shedd Aquarium in a press release about the health of the newly arrived whales after the death of two arrivals, Peekachu and Rain.

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In addition to bloodwork and medical cues, the care teams are monitoring for any changes in the whales’ behavior, something that is becoming easier as they get to know each whale’s personality.

This mission isn’t a sprint, but it’s not really a marathon, either. Marathons have a clear finish line and can be completed in one fell swoop.

Every step of this process has been another opportunity to learn, and while the cause is still unknown, the deaths of Peekachu and Rain will hopefully provide information that could help the other whales rescued from Marineland Canada.

The care and support for the remaining 28 whales is a long-term process that will be continued every day by the aquariums they now call home.

Sara Tonks is a content meteorologist with weather.com and has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Georgia Tech in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, along with a master’s degree from Unity Environmental University in Marine Science.