One of many most important elements of pulling off an unprecedented worldwide aircraft journey for 4 beluga whales is ensuring they don’t even notice that they’re on a visit. “The aim is that they discover as little as doable,” says Karisa Tang, the lead veterinarian and vice chairman of animal well being at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.
Tang and Charlie Jacobsma, the Shedd’s director of animal conduct and coaching, accompanied beluga whales Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra on the journey from their Niagara Falls enclosures to Toronto’s Pearson Airport and to Chicago. Two extra belugas joined the flight on a chartered Boeing 777 freighter however have been then transported to an aquarium in San Antonio.
The whales had been residing in Marineland of Niagara Falls, a infamous, long-running aquarium and amusement park that went bankrupt after the demise of its house owners and closed to the general public in 2024. Because it ran out of cash to take care of the animals, the park had beforehand implored the Canadian authorities for help. In 2025, Marineland introduced that it had made the “devastating choice” to think about euthanasia if it couldn’t relocate the animals.
At that time, the broader aquarium and marine biology world was already discussing what could possibly be finished; by January 2026, members of the rescue crew have been flying to Ontario to evaluate how they’d transport the belugas. In June, Canada reached an settlement with Marineland to permit this rehoming course of, during which animals might go to a consortium of aquariums in Georgia, San Diego, and Spain, along with the whales already transferred to Chicago and Texas establishments. It was an unprecedented mission. “Folks have moved belugas earlier than,” Tang says. “However one thing of this scale had not been finished.”
All of it went about as easily as transferring thousand-plus-pound water-dwelling mammals lots of of miles might have gone: “Stunning, good, gradual takeoff and a pleasant straightforward touchdown,” Jacobsma tells WIRED. The crew was capable of keep near the whales, always monitoring them and “pouring water on their backs, ensuring that they have been snug.”
A couple of days after the transport, on a sunny Friday afternoon, guests to the Shedd’s Oceanarium part are greeted with indicators asking for quiet. “Please hold voices low,” they learn. “Assist the rescued belugas acclimate to their new dwelling.” WIRED peeked right into a secluded habitat, which is underneath round the clock surveillance by veterinarians and different marine life specialists, the place Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra are presently being saved out of sight of the general public so their new stewards can deal with settling them into their new dwelling.
