Beluga whale dies at Chicago aquarium days after coming from Canada park in rescue effort

CHICAGO (AP) — A beluga whale died days after it was transported hundreds of miles to a Chicago aquarium from a shuttered Ontario park as part of an ongoing effort to rescue Canada’s last captive whales.

The whale, a 23-year-old female named Peekachu, died suddenly Tuesday as caretakers tried to rehydrate her, Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium said in a news release. Peekachu was one of eight whales moved from Marineland park in Ontario to the Chicago aquarium this summer — four in July, and four more this month.

Marineland shut its doors in 2024, kicking off a race to find new homes for its 30 beluga whales and four dolphins before they would be euthanized. The Canadian government finally approved a plan to export the whales to the Shedd Aquarium and four other marine parks in January.

Twenty whales — 19 belugas and one killer whale — have died at Marineland since 2019, according to provincial government data obtained through freedom-of-information laws and official statements.

The complex operation to bring the whales to the Shedd Aquarium saw them hoisted in custom-made slings and held in temperature-controlled containers, aquarium officials previously told The Associated Press. Their behavior and health were carefully monitored to the minute once they arrived, officials said.

Peekachu was blind in one eye and had trouble socializing with fellow whales, the aquarium said in its announcement. The whale showed “early signs of progress” in the days after the trip, but blood samples taken Tuesday concerned caretakers that she was dehydrated. As aquarium attendants tried to revitalize her with food and medicine that evening, she died, according to the aquarium.

The aquarium said it is committed to sharing a necropsy report of the whale “as soon as we have one.”

Marineland’s whales and dolphins will also move to Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, SeaWorld locations in San Antonio and San Diego, and Oceanografic Valencia in Spain.

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Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.