A fourth beluga moved out of Marineland has died at Shedd

Osiris, a 26-year-old female beluga, died on September 21 at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, about two months after arriving from Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She is the fourth beluga to die since being moved out of the shuttered Canadian park, and the third of those four to die at Shedd.

Getting the count right takes some care. Four belugas from Marineland are dead; three died in Chicago and one in Spain. A fifth whale that died at Shedd in the same stretch, Beethoven, was a longtime Shedd resident and was never part of the transfer.

Peekachu, Rain, Jelly Bean, Osiris

The first to die was Peekachu, a rescued beluga at Shedd, in late August. She was followed in early September by Rain, a 20-year-old female that had arrived in mid-August, according to WTTW’s earlier report. Beethoven, a 34-year-old male who had fathered a calf named Opus in 2024, died the same day as Rain, and Shedd said at the time that it was “impossible to know if these passings are isolated or related.”

The third death overall came in Spain, not Chicago. Jelly Bean died less than a week before Osiris at Oceanogràfic de València, one of the other aquariums that received animals from the park, after what the Spanish facility’s spokesperson, José Rafael Serra, described as feeding difficulties before a sudden collapse, as the Associated Press reported. Osiris followed, which made her the fourth overall. The Western Standard’s coverage carries the same tally in its headline: the fourth Marineland beluga to die after relocation, and the third at the Chicago aquarium.

The sequence runs from late August to September 21, and all four whales died within weeks of the transfers. Of the Shedd trio, Osiris had been in Chicago since late July, while Rain came in the mid-August group. The pattern is what drew comment from outside experts, and the question of a shared cause keeps being asked even though no source has yet answered it in public.

Osiris and the whales of clinical concern

Osiris arrived at Shedd in late July. According to the AP, she had been a “whale of clinical concern” since arrival, struggling to eat and stay hydrated. On the morning she died she showed behavioral and respiratory changes, and her condition “declined rapidly” despite initial lifesaving efforts. WTTW reported that her appetite had improved before the end and that the cause of death is unknown pending a necropsy.

Dr. Karisa Tang of Shedd’s veterinary team has described the outlook for the remaining rescued whales in literal terms, saying that “day by day, hour by hour” is not a figure of speech and that each animal is on a different path.

The aquarium said each rescued beluga “came to Shedd with a distinct life history and health needs” that could not be fully understood beforehand. Both Shedd and the Spanish aquarium described their deaths as sudden and unexpected. In a separate statement Shedd said that, when asked to join the rescue, it had understood that “these animals arrived with significant vulnerabilities and that the outcome for every individual could not be guaranteed,” a position that places the risk in the whales’ condition before the move, though no necropsy has yet confirmed any such cause.

Thirty belugas, five aquariums, one approval process

The relocation was an international effort to move belugas and dolphins from the shuttered park to U.S. and Spanish facilities rather than see them euthanized. Thirty belugas were distributed among Georgia Aquarium, SeaWorld San Antonio, SeaWorld San Diego, Oceanogràfic de València and Shedd. Shedd took ten of them, along with four dolphins; the ten came in two groups, in late July and mid-August, so three of the ten are now dead.

Canada’s Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson approved each transfer individually, and every whale received health clearance before moving, Canadian Press reporting relayed by WTTW says. Animal Justice, a Canadian animal law organization, criticized the pace of the process, arguing that independent health assessments should have been completed before transport and noting that three of five belugas moved from Marineland to Connecticut in 2021 had died.

Andrew Trites of the University of British Columbia, quoted by the AP, said what stood out to him was the timing: “Four animals have died so shortly after arriving in the new homes.” Necropsy results for Osiris are the next piece of evidence on whether the four deaths share a cause, and Shedd has said that necropsies and blood tests were under way in the earlier cases without yet naming a link. Until the findings are published, the only fixed facts are the count, the places and the names: Peekachu, Rain and Osiris at Shedd, Jelly Bean in Valencia.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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