sevenseasoffreedom: RIP. SeaWorld San Antonio’s baby beluga, born to Martha on June 20th, died yeste
sevenseasoffreedom: RIP. SeaWorld San Antonio’s baby beluga, born to Martha on June 20th, died yesterday—having lived only 22 days. Despite the calf being one month premature, she was put on display to visitors in the show pool within hours after her birth. Staff supplemented natural nursing with a formula consisting of salmon oil and whipping cream. Nevertheless, the calf was in a guarded condition, having not gained very much weight. Including this recently-deceased baby, over the years Martha has given birth 4 times and all of those calves are now dead, none surviving to age 3. Martha was captured from the wild in Canadian waters in July 1988 (happy anniversary! *sarcasm*), so she is at least 27 years old. This situation may sound familiar, as Georgia Aquarium’s newest baby beluga died at 26 days old last month. Even though these deaths are clearly evident that beluga whales do not fare well in captivity, Georgia Aquarium, SeaWorld, and Shedd Aquarium are currently fighting hard to gain a permit to import 18 wild-caught beluga whales that Georgia Aquarium paid to capture in Russia! NOAA rejected the permit application due to the fact that calves too young were captured, so Georgia Aquarium is suing the government body. These facilities want new whales to add to their breeding programs because their remaining belugas cannot sustain the species in captivity in the United States. Clearly, a barren, concrete pool is NOT the Arctic. Please oppose this unnecessary suffering by not buying a ticket to see confined whales, dolphins, or porpoises. Photo: SeaWorld Sources: SeaWorld, Georgia Aquarium, NOAA, Ceta Base -- source link