Two beluga whales evacuated from Kharkiv's Nemo dolphinarium: they will live in Spain – photos, video
Two beluga whales have been evacuated from the Nemo dolphinarium in Kharkiv due to intensified Russian attacks.
Source: The New York Times
Details: From now on, they will live in the Spanish province of Valencia, in the largest oceanarium in Europe.
The two beluga whales, Plombir, a 15-year-old male, and Miranda, a 14-year-old female, lived in the Kharkiv branch of the Nemo dolphinarium.
Belugas, whose natural habitat is the Arctic, need cold water to survive. The destruction of the power grid in Kharkiv meant that the aquarium had to rely on generator power, making it challenging to keep the waters cooled. Recently, a Russian projectile struck near Nemo.
Moreover, the whales’ diet has recently had to be halved due to the lack of squid, herring, mackerel and other fresh fish.
Therefore, the owners of the dolphinarium decided to evacuate the belugas.
Dan Ashe, head of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the former head of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said it was "likely the most complex marine mammal rescue ever undertaken", for which "the world’s most elite team of marine mammal experts" was needed.
The evacuation lasted for 36 hours. During the exhausting journey, there were problems with transportation crates, which turned out to be too small for belugas, and the lack of heavy lifting cranes needed to move the whales at the Moldovan airport. The rescuers had to charter a specific cargo plane equipped with an interior crane.
The animals are now at the Oceanogràfic de Valencia oceanarium in Spain, which is the largest one in Europe.
Recently, a special investigation by journalists of UAnimals Media and the Molfar OSINT agency revealed that the owners of Nemo may have branches in Russia and ties to the Edinaya Rossiya (United Russia) party.
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