After being imprisoned off the coast of Russia at a very young age and spending years in a Chinese aquarium, the whales are about to become accustomed to the freedom of an 8-acre shrine at Klettsvik Bay in Iceland.
“It’s been quite the journey for these two,” Audrey Padgett, the general manager of the Beluga Whale Sanctuary, told CNN on a video call for the belugas. “It has not been easy, but it has certainly been a labor of love.”
Back in 2011, Little Gray and Little White were relocated from a Russian research facility to the Aqufeng Ocean Aquarium in Shanghai. The following year, the aquarium was purchased by Merlin Entertainments, a company that keeps whales and dolphins captive.
And so the idea was born to take the whales back to sea.
The belugas’ new home, run by the Sea Life Trust charity, is a much “larger, natural environment” with many potential benefits, Padgett said.
More than 300 belugas are in captivity around the world, she told CNN.
“Some belugas are in cramped and unsuitable conditions,” she added. “And if what we can learn here from Little White and Little Gray can help improve the welfare of other animals … that’s really the point.”
Although Padgett was not involved in the logistics of transporting the whales from China, they insisted that moving two belugas was not an easy task.
They each weigh a little over a ton and consume about 110 pounds of fish per day between them.
The operation was specially designed equipment, veterinarians and a lot of water and ice to keep them under control, Padgett said.
The belugas had “stretchers” or slings fitted to move them across the land, and the team conducted “exercises for runes” to get used to being moved via trucks, tugs and cranes, according to Padgett.
“If you’re trying to take your cat or your dog somewhere, you want them to have a positive association with travel … We had to make the belugas as comfortable as possible,” Padgett continued.
After their arrival in Iceland, the whales were kept for several months in a care facility with a quarantine swimming pool, to adapt to the colder Icelandic environment.
And although the last leg of the trip from the care facility to the sanctuary was a short one, the Covid-19 pandemic significantly complicated it.
“We are already in a pretty remote location here in Iceland. It affects our ability to get experts here to help us with the move. It affects our ability to get deliveries and just the length of time that it took to do things, “Padgett told CNN.
“We also needed to protect and quarantine our staff because we need our people to take care of our animals.”
Little Gray and Little White’s Odyssey is not quite over. They are currently in an “acclimatization space” within the sanctuary allowing them to adapt safely to their new home.
However, Padgett says they will now have free rain from the sanctuary every day.
Small gray and small white will be observed around the clock as they are accustomed to being back in the ocean environment.
And while whales benefit from more space to explore and new species of seaweed, kelp and fish to enjoy, the whole operation also helps people better understand the belugas, Padgett explains.
“It’s kind of the finish line for these two,” she said, “but it’s a new chapter for belugas all over the world.”
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