When a marine mammal is deemed by NOAA to be unreleasable, and the agency chooses a facility to house the animal permanently, s/he becomes the facility’s “property.” So, it would be for SeaWorld to agree to any of “their” animals to a seaside sanctuary.

Quality of life always trumps quantity and/or death.
Sea World is not the most humane, or ethical choice.
Perhaps you would prefer to live a long life on life support, or in captivity making money for your captors .
You need to think out of your little box of a brain, and look at ALL
Sides of a picture before passing judgment on us “sick”(??) people.

Here in the UK we have a seal sanctuary called GWEEK and they do an amazing jobs rescuing seals and sea birds that get affected/abandoned etc. Government and public funded they do well. Im sure that people would willingly help out if more people knew that the sea pens were trying to be built.

Keiko once had one in Norway did he not? I followed his case with huge interest.

The one whale I am the most sad about is Lolita. Thats such a Bullsht environment for her. They’re all in horrible places, but hers is just ridiculous. And heartbreaking.

So. Let us know, tell us how we can help and spread the word, and cause a famous twitter uprising!

Indeed. The ONLY satisfactory solution for any animal who cannot be returned to his/her natural environment is a sanctuary.

Who benefits? I’m very confident that SeaWorld don’t do this for the sake of a species..I feel sick that this poor Beluga (and so many others) will spend his life in a concrete tank performing for his keep and human entertainment…this is NOT the way to educate people about marine mammals…

I believe you’re talking about the documentary called “Call of the Baby Beluga” in the Canadian series The Nature of Things. I haven’t seen it personally since it’s only available online to viewers in Canada. But from what I understand of it, there are some significant differences in the two cases. The calf in the St. Lawrence was taken off the beach by the researchers and immediately brought to a location in the estuary near other whales. In the case of Tyonek, there were no whales observed in the vicinity. The scientists in the Canadian situation knew there were huge risks to putting the little calf back out there, but her chances were at least better than when she was stranded on the shore.

By the end of the documentary, the researchers knew only that a group of males stayed with the baby for about an hour then left her on her own. After about another hour, a female with a calf came and interacted with the orphan and the three dove together and were not seen again. The researchers had taken a small skin sample for DNA and hope perhaps in the future they will find a match. As of yet, everyone holds onto hope rather than proof that the little one has survived.

It’s always difficult to know what’s best in any of these cases. In many other countries, it’s considered best to euthanize baby whales who are found beached. That was not the call that NOAA made in Tyonek’s case. But in saving her life, they knew from the start that it was likely they would not be able to return her to the ocean.

Those are the facts as we understand them here. And we look forward to a time when a baby whale like Tyonek will have the possibility of spending her life at a seaside sanctuary rather than a marine entertainment park.

They did look in waters nearby, as is required. But found no families in the vicinity. Further afield , it would be hard to know if a family they spotted was the right one and if they would accept the baby. It’s also likely that the mother had either already died or had, for whatever reason, abandoned her calf … and would do the same again. NOAA has strict (and reasonable) policies about all this, and they were followed to the letter.

Soooo sad, why not try and find family in the waters where he was found. Why Sea World ?

Can’t agree more my first reaction when read SeaWorld ughh. Will be glad when these hell holes are shut down for good

You would prefer it had died on the beach? Sick. Seek help.

Yes!

There’s no hold-up, Sara. It’s the mission of the Whale Sanctuary Project to create the first seaside sanctuary in North America for captive orcas and belugas. (Check out the “Our Work” page on this website for more info.) Thanks for asking!