The transfer of six belugas from Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ont., to aquariums in the U.S. began Monday.
Here’s a visual recounting of how it worked.
This drone image shows whale pools at the closed tourist attraction on Monday, ahead of the move. Marineland staff could be seen attending to and feeding the whales.
The operation to move the creatures, which can weigh as much as 1,900 kilograms, involved special slings, cranes, transport trucks, large blue containers and more than two dozen workers.
The water was partially drained from one of the pools.
Experts from Marineland and the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago were on scene. Here, workers surround a whale with netting to manoeuvre it into a sling.
The whales were moved in the special slings, which had holes for their flippers, by crane to large blue containers on the back of a flatbed trailer. (These images don’t show all the same whale, but show what the sequence was like for any one of them.)
The transport container included water, a pool liner and soft material to act as a cushion.
The police-escorted convoy then made its way to Toronto Pearson International Airport. The convoy, which included medical teams, was to move slowly and avoid steep inclines, to keep the whales stable.
Four of the whales being shipped Monday — Sierra, Acadia, Osiris and Lillooet — were headed to the Shedd Aquarium, while the others — Bertie Botts and Frankie — were going to SeaWorld in San Antonio. They were all transported on the same plane.
The whales were scheduled to arrive at their new homes today.
The transport plan could see up to 30 of the remaining whales at the former park relocated to four U.S. aquariums and one in Spain over the next few weeks.
