This July, the Georgia Aquarium formally announced that they’d be participating in the rescue of two of the thirty beluga whales who were living at a shut-down Canadian Zoo. This extremely dangerous and complex rescue mission came with a lot of possible problems: but now, we can safely say that the whales are home in the Georgia Aquarium! Keep scrolling to learn more.
Wait… what’s happening?
Here’s the brief version of what’s going on: In 2024, Marineland of Canada, a Canadian zoo, shut down due to a financial crisis, leaving 30 beluga whales with an uncertain future ahead of them.
After figuring out some very complex logistics, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) authorized an emergency rescue for the whales earlier this summer.
The plan was to bring 28 of the belugas to U.S. aquariums, and send two of them to a Spanish aquarium, Oceanogràfic València. The U.S. government formally approved the rescue mission in July, making this process possible to begin.
Now, many of the whales are safely in American aquariums, including our two new additions: Balor and Zephyr.
Meet Balor and Zephyr
Balor is a 10 year old male beluga, and Zephyr is a 7 year old male beluga. Both whales arrived in the ATL early Thursday (8/13) morning, around 2am.
The Georgia Aquarium said in a post on Instagram,
Welcome to the A, Balor and Zephyr! These two male beluga whales, 10 and 7-years-old, respectively, have safely arrived at Georgia Aquarium from a closed marine park in Canada as part of an international, multi-institutional rescue operation. Everything we do now is at their pace – they will begin discovering their new surroundings and getting all the care (and fish!) they need. They will remain behind-the-scenes until it’s time to meet our existing beluga whale pod – which may be in the coming days.
There is no word yet on when the belugas will be out and about for the public to meet! But as we know, we’ll keep ya posted!
Welcome to Atlanta, Balor and Zephyr!