4 years ago

Another Whale Dies at Mystic Aquarium

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I studied Journalism at San Francisco State University and have written for Patch, Bleacher Report,... Read More

Another whale has died at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, according to their Facebook page. This time, a female beluga died. In August, it was a male. Mystic received 5 whales from Marineland (a zoo and amusement park) in Canada in May of last year. Now there’s only three left.

The Male, Havok, was reported to have gastric ulcers when he arrived at Mystic. Transporting whales is an extremely stressful event for them, so this couldn’t have been very helpful for his ulcers. The female’s cause of death is unknown but has been receiving “intensive care over the past several months for multiple health issues,” according to Mystic.

Another whale is currently in intensive care.

In 2020, a permit was issued to get the five whales into the country, however, after pressure from animal welfare groups, the permit was restricted so that the whales could only be used in research–not for entertainment or breeding purposes. The interesting thing is that Mystic doesn’t have any research facilities, and the belugas are in a public display tank.

Another thing to note is that, before the whales were imported, Mystic asked for an amendment to be made to the permit. They requested to substitute three of the five whales that were intended to be shipped to them, for three other whales. This was because they deemed those initial whales to be sick.

“These five whales were supposed to be healthy when they were imported, but it is becoming increasingly clear they were not,” said Dr. Naomi Rose, a marine scientist from the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI).

“If Mystic knew this and imported them anyway, that is unacceptable. If they did not know, that is incompetence. These whales deserve better — we demand a full government investigation into this situation. What was meant to be an uneventful import for research has become a disaster.”

Whales are known to die you in captivity because they are weak and can therefore be killed by relatively mild causes. They also don’t receive adequate mental stimulation, they don’t swim even a fraction of what they would in the ocean, and they engage in stress-induced behavior. Like all animals, they are much better off free.