One of many most important components of pulling off an unprecedented worldwide airplane experience for 4 beluga whales is ensuring they don’t even understand that they’re on a visit. “The objective is that they discover as little as doable,” says Karina Tang, the lead veterinarian and vp of animal well being at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.
Tang and Charlie Jacobsma, the Shedd’s director of animal conduct and coaching, each accompanied beluga whales Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra on the journey from their Niagara Falls enclosures to Toronto’s Pearson Airport to Chicago. Two further belugas joined the flight on a chartered Boeing 777 freighter, however have been then transported to an aquarium in San Antonio.
The whales have been residing in Marineland of Niagara Falls, a infamous, longrunning 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 previously implored the Canadian authorities for help. In 2025, Marineland introduced that it had made the “devastating resolution” to contemplate euthanasia if it couldn’t relocate the animals.
At that time, the broader aquarium and marine biology world was already discussing what might be achieved; by January 2026, members of the rescue staff 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, through which animals could 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 achieved.”
All of it went about as easily as transferring thousand-plus-pound water-dwelling mammals tons of of miles might have gone: “Lovely, good, gradual takeoff and a pleasant straightforward touchdown,” Jacobsma tells WIRED. The staff was in a position to keep near the whales, continually monitoring them and “pouring water on their backs, ensuring that they have been snug.”
Just a few 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 below round the clock surveillance by veterinarians and different marine life specialists, the place Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra are at present stored out of sight of the general public so their new stewards can give attention to settling them into their new dwelling.