US Aquarium faces lawsuit for the importation of five beluga whales.
An animal rights group is suing in federal court to stop a Connecticut aquarium from acquiring five more beluga whales for research, saying they would be harmed by the trip from Canada and being torn from long term relationships with others of their species.
On 3 September 2020, Friends of Animals (“FOA”), an animal rights group, filed its lawsuit in the US District Court against Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the National Marine Fisheries Service challenging the decision of approving the research permit that would allow Mystic Aquarium to import the belugas from Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Mystic Aquarium currently has three beluga whales, who are living in the largest outdoor beluga habitat in the US, at 750,000 gallons.
According to FOA, there are two grounds for the challenge, who have said the decision would:
“…tears them away from deep familial and social relationships that they have. formed with the dozens of other belugas at Marineland, and the long and foreign voyage on trucks and airplanes emotionally and psychologically scars them.”
FOA also contends that the importation violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act Subchapter 2 § 1374 C1, which provides:
“Any permit issued by the Secretary which authorizes the taking or importation of a marine mammal … the methods of capture, supervision, care, and transportation which must be observed pursuant to such taking or importation.”
Stephen Hernick, a lawyer for FOA added:
“Not only is it unprecedented for the government to issue a permit to import members of a depleted species of belugas for purported research, it is illegal.”
The proposed, 5-year permit cited in the lawsuit, says the aquarium seeks the animals for non-invasive research. The whales would not be allowed to be displayed used for entertainment for patrons of the aquarium and the animals could not be bred.
On the website, Mystic Aquarium defends the research and says the beluga habitat there will provide a safe, healthy and spacious environment for the five new whales. It also says they will be transported safely. It says having a larger group of belugas will advance knowledge quicker on information vital to their survival, including reproductive systems, behaviour, stress response and immune system capabilities.
Belugas, also known as white whales, are common in the Arctic Ocean’s costal waters and are also found in subarctic waters.
Courtesy of Marco Poon