It took the efforts of experts from around the globe to transport the beluga whales out of Ukraine to safety. Image source: Mike Johnston, via Flickr.
A recent multinational operation has successfully transported a pair of beluga whales from the NEMO Dolphinarium in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
The whales were moved across a period of three days to their destination of Oceanogràfic in Valencia, Spain, one of the largest aquariums in Europe.
The whales were 15-year-old male Plombir and 14-year-old female Miranda, who were placed into separate areas on arrival in Oceanogràfic. They are not accessible to the public to allow for their recovery from the journey.
Beluga whales are adapted to life in Arctic waters and able to grow between 3 to 5.5 metres in size, which made them difficult to transport.
Daniel Garcia-Párraga, the director of zoological operations at Oceanogràfic, remarked on both the difficulty and necessity of the rescue.
“The belugas have a suboptimal body condition to undertake this type of trip, but if they had continued in Kharkiv, their chances of survival would have been very slim.”
Kharkiv has recently experienced increasing threats from Russian artillery fire. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has heavily impacted the region, which lies close to the Russian border.
Since the war between Ukraine and Russia began with Russia’s invasion in 2022, the NEMO Dolphinarium had been evacuating residents to safer aquariums and dolphinariums.
The beluga whales, however, due to their large size and specific needs, required more complexity in their move out of Ukraine. Experts were brought in from Georgia Aquarium and SeaWorld to aid in the operation.
Keith Yip, animal care specialist from SeaWorld, stated that the beluga whales had gone through “challenging conditions”, referring to food, energy, and medicine shortages.
“The Ukrainian caregivers were very brave, and the whole team involved did everything possible to provide the belugas comfort and safety during the evacuation to Valencia,” said Yip.
The rescue mission comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin travels to Vietnam after a diplomatic visit to North Korea. Putin’s visit to North Korea proved beneficial for both countries, who have now signed a mutual defence pact together.
The rescue also comes after Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for emergency peace talks in Switzerland. More than 90 countries attended the peace summit.
While Russia’s invasion was condemned, the meeting failed to persuade non-aligned countries to sign the summit communique.
