Inside the Wild Rescue Mission That Took 4 Beluga Whales to Chicago
One of the most crucial parts of pulling off an unprecedented international plane ride for four beluga whales is making sure they don’t even realize
One of the most crucial parts of pulling off an unprecedented international plane ride for four beluga whales is making sure they don’t even realize that they’re on a trip. “The goal is that they notice as little as possible,” says Karina Tang, the lead veterinarian and vice president of animal health at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. Tang and Charlie Jacobsma, the Shedd’s director of animal behavior and training, both accompanied beluga whales Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra on the journey from their Niagara Falls enclosures to Toronto’s Pearson Airport to Chicago. Two additional belugas joined the flight on a chartered Boeing 777 freighter, but were then transported to an aquarium in San Antonio.
The whales were living in Marineland of Niagara Falls, a notorious, longrunning aquarium and amusement park that went bankrupt after the death of its owners and closed to the public in 2024. As it ran out of money to care for the animals, the park had previously implored the Canadian government for assistance. In 2025, Marineland announced that it had made the “devastating decision” to consider euthanasia if it could not relocate the animals. Workers at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium use a sling to move a beluga whale. Photograph: Reuters At that point, the wider aquarium and marine biology world was already discussing what could be done; by January 2026, members of the rescue team were flying to Ontario to assess how they’d transport the belugas.
In June, Canada reached an agreement with Marineland to allow this rehoming process, in which animals may go to a consortium of aquariums in Georgia, San Diego, and Spain, in addition to the whales already transferred to Chicago and Texas institutions. It was an unprecedented mission. “People have moved belugas before,” Tang says. “But something of this scale had not been done.” It all went about as smoothly as moving thousand-plus-pound water-dwelling mammals hundreds of miles could have gone: “Beautiful, nice, slow takeoff and a nice easy landing,” Jacobsma tells WIRED. The team was able to stay close to the whales, constantly monitoring them and “pouring water on their backs, making sure that they were comfortable.” A few days after the transport, on a sunny Friday afternoon, visitors to the Shedd’s Oceanarium section are greeted with signs asking for quiet.
“Please keep voices low,” they read. “Help the rescued belugas acclimate to their new home.” WIRED peeked into a secluded habitat, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by veterinarians and other marine life experts, where Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra are currently kept out of sight of the public so their new stewards can focus on settling them into their new home.
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