Credit: Agence France-Presse
Two beluga whales from a Shanghai aquarium have returned to the sea in an Icelandic sanctuary, conservationists said Monday, expressing hopes of creating a model for rehoming some 300 belugas currently in captivity.
Little White and Little Grey, two 13-year-old females, left behind their previous lives entertaining visitors at the Changfeng Ocean World in June 2019 when they were flown to Iceland’s Klettsvik Bay in the Westman Islands, in specially tailored containers.
On Friday, they were moved from their landbased facility to care pools in the sea at Klettsvik Bay — the first time the two belugas have been in the sea since they were taken from a Russian whale research centre in 2011, the conservation charity Sea Life Trust said in a statement on Monday.Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
They will stay in the care pools “for a few weeks” before they are released into the bigger sanctuary, a 32,000-square-meter (344,445-square-foot) sea pen that will become their home, organizers said.
Little Grey and Little White “will need a short […]
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As the world faces climate change, this is one good move to help in a way that saves at least some creatures which face extinction without our help. I love animals (and fish) and do all that I can to help groups who try to balance the scales to help them.
Thank you for posting. Any news about the people out there who continue to do work that affirms life is a blessing! I love the photo. It seemed as if the whale was smiling.. anticipating freedom at some level of consciousness.