Chicago Welcomes Belugas From Canada, But Not Without Concerns

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:32)
Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.
Four beluga whales from a shuttered tourist attraction in Ontario, Canada, now call the Shedd Aquarium home. But here's a pop quiz. Do you know what a beluga sounds like?
While many herald their move to Chicago as a rescue mission, it raises long-standing questions about what's in the best interest of whales that are in human care. We'll dig into it on this episode of The Pod. And I want you to be sure to stick around to the end for a rundown of the day's top local stories.
If you grew up in Ontario, Canada, there is a good chance that you can still sing the jingle, Everyone loves marine land. For generations, the Niagara Falls Aquatic Park was a family tradition. I went there a few times as a kid and I had a blast. But behind the catchy song, the park has long faced criticism over things like poor water quality, animal neglect, and keeping them in tight, cramped spaces. Time now to discuss the ongoing debate over what life and human care should look like for these animals and what the journey from Ontario to Chicago has been like for the four belugas. At the table with me was Johnny Ford, Vice President of Communications for the Shedd Aquarium. Kaitlyn Mitchell, who's Director of Legal Advocacy for Animal Justice, that's a Toronto-based animal law advocacy group. And Stefano Esposito, who's a Chicago Sun-Times Features Reporter. I had Stefano kick things off with more details on the conditions at Marineland before the park closed in 2024 Here he is.

**Stefano Esposito** (2:23)
The thing is that people, the general public, obviously it's closed, you can't get in there, it's locked. The only people who are going in there, I think are welfare people from the province of Ontario. But you can see, a lot of folks have been doing drone images, videos of the park, and you can see there, the conditions, as you said earlier, are cramped.
The tanks themselves are black. I mean, it doesn't take a scientist to realize how poor the conditions are. And also, a little bit of history, 20 of the beluga whales, as well as the total of 20 beluga whales and dolphins have died there since 2019, as well as other animals, too.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:05)
Yeah, and in the case here, Marineland officials said that they no longer had the funds to actually keep caring for the whales and that they'd be euthanized if not moved. So, Kaitlyn, you say this was a manufactured crisis. Tell me what you mean by that.

**Kaitlyn Mitchell** (3:21)
Absolutely. So, you know, Marineland has had a number of belugas and dolphins for years. In fact, at some points, they had more than 60
So they bred these animals intentionally, profited off of them for decades. And what one would expect is that they would have had a wind down plan. There'd be some money that would ensure the care for the animals. When the park closed, there would be a plan for where they could go.
But what we've seen is that when Marineland closed its doors in 2024, and these animals were no longer profitable, they started to try to offload them as quickly as possible in order to sell the land they're on. You mentioned that they don't have money to care for them, and that's certainly what they're saying. But they are sitting on land that's worth probably more than $500 million Canadian. So they still have money. And it really feels like better planning and more legal enforcement could have avoided this crisis right from the beginning.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:20)
Now, Johnny, you were there for the rescue. So tell us more and how Shedd staff are monitoring the safety of the whales during that journey.

**Johnny Ford** (4:31)
Yeah, I will say this was such an unprecedented thing to witness, just the sheer number of animals and people involved. We've never seen a rescue like this for beluga whales at this scale.
And the teams involved have been working for months to try and get to know these animals, going up and observing them, talking to the staff at Marine Land so that we can understand as much as possible what these animals need individually, and then putting the rescue plan together. So the rescue plan came together over a period of several months. It was then shared with the US government, with the Canadian government for approval and authorization. And now four whales have arrived at Shedd, Acadia, Lillooet, Sierra, and Osiris. And they're all female.