Two beluga whales flown from Shanghai aquarium to sanctuary in Iceland

Source: Agence France-Presse

Two whales flown from Shanghai aquarium to sanctuary in Iceland

Female 12-year-old beluga whales Little Grey and Little White arrive at Klettsvik Bay

AFP in Reykjavik
Thu 20 Jun 2019 00.21 BST

Two beluga whales from a Shanghai aquarium have arrived in Iceland to live out their days in a unique marine sanctuary that conservationists hope will become a model for rehoming 3,000 of the creatures currently in captivity.

Little Grey and Little White, two 12-year-old female belugas, left behind their previous lives entertaining visitors at the Changfeng Ocean World and were flown across the globe in specially tailored containers.

The whales, which each weigh about 900kg and are four metres long, will continue their epic journey by truck and ferry to the sanctuary at Klettsvik Bay at Heimaey, one of the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland.

The conservation charity Sea Life Trust, which has been at the forefront of the project, said the bay is the world’s first open water beluga sanctuary and had been selected to “provide a more natural sub-Arctic environment and wilder habitat for these amazing whales to call home”.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/20/two-whales-flown-from-shanghai-aquarium-to-sanctuary-in-iceland


Little Grey and Little White at the aquarium in Shanghai. They have now arrived at a sanctuary in Iceland. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA