Six Marineland belugas now swimming in new U.S. homes

Six belugas have been moved from the shuttered Marineland after a deal to rehome the whales was struck with multiple U.S. and Spanish aquariums.

NIAGARA FALLS — Six captive belugas from Canada are now swimming in the waters of their new homes in the United States.

Marineland and a consortium of U.S. aquariums helped move the first batch of whales in a long, complex process that began Monday afternoon at the closed Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction.

Marineland’s external legal counsel, Andrew Burns, says the move went better than expected, with no major hiccups lifting the whales out of their pools and placing them in tanks on transport trucks, and no issues in a two-hour convoy ride to the airport.

A spokesman for the U.S. consortium, Johnny Ford of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, says four whales arrived there in the early hours of Tuesday morning and are doing well.

He says two other belugas went on to SeaWorld in San Antonio and ended up in those pools later Tuesday morning.

Marineland has said it is running out of money and can no longer care for the whales and is in the process of an unprecedented move to get 24 more belugas and four dolphins out of the park.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2026.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press