Nanuq another Seaworld shame. Beluga programme needs to end!

The Province along with many other press outlets reported the death of Nanuq this week

..VANCOUVER — A beluga whale from the Vancouver Aquarium that had been living at a SeaWorld in Florida has died.
Orlando SeaWorld posted a statement on its Facebook page Friday confirming the death of Nanuq, a male beluga estimated to be around 31 or 32 years old.
SeaWorld says Nanuq was being treated by veterinarians for an infection associated with a fractured jaw, an injury that resulted from an “interaction between two animals that were part of a compatible social group.”
The cause of death is not yet known, and a post-mortem examination has been scheduled, although results are not expected for six to eight weeks.
The Vancouver Aquarium says Nanuq was transferred to Orlando in 1997, as part of a co-operative program to manage the genetic diversity of belugas in human care.
He has had five transfers between various SeaWorld facilities, with the most recent occurring in 2014 when he was moved from San Diego to Orlando.
The aquarium says that in 1995 Nanuq sired a female beluga named Qila, who continues to live at the
Vancouver Aquarium, and staff are deeply saddened by the death.''

Lets take a look at the life Nanuq has had in human care and at the 'compatible social group'. 

Nanuq was captured in Manitoba on the 12th August 1990, along with Imaq who also belongs to Van Aqua but now lives at Seaworld. He was transported to Van Aqua on the 15th August and was put to work in the breeding programme, he currently has Qila who was born on 23rd July 1995 and is still housed at Van Aqua.

In the meantime Seaworld's beluga calves were dying.

Snow White, captured 1968 death unknown

Too too, captured Sept 1972, was placed in the Gillis family pool, transported again to Seaworld Ohio, transported again in the same month to Seaworld California and died en route.

x, transported to Seaworld California 15th July 1973 died 9th November 1973 (4 months at SW)

Edwina, captured 1973, transported to Seaworld 15th July 1973 died 16th July 1979 (6 years at SW)

 Belinda, captured 1973, transported to Seaworld California 15th July 1973, died 25th April 1975 at Seaworld Ohio (2 years at SW)

 Kojak, captured 15th July 1975, transferred to New York Aquarium 22nd July 1975, transferred to SW California 25th Feb 1976, died 27th Nov 1976 (9 months at SW)

Muk Tuk, captured 1977, transferred 1st August 1977 to US Navy, transfer SW California 7th Feb 2001, died 18th Jan 2007 (6 years at SW)

 Nukilik,  captured 31 July 1977, transported to Minnesota Zoo 22nd July 1975, transferred to SW California 26th April 1987, dead 16th July 1990 (3 years at SW)

Anana, captured 11th August 1977, transported to Minnesota Zoo 16th August 1977 transported to SW California April 1987, dead 12th June 1989 (2 years at SW)

Shadow, captured July 1979 transported to SW California 24th July 1979 dead 20th August 1981 (2 years at SW)

Casper, transported to SW 24th July 1979, died whilst pregnant 20th August 1987 (8 years at SW)

Snoopy  captured and sent to SW California 24th July 1979 died 20th Jan 1981 (2 years at SW)

Belinda's calf born on 7th May died on 11th May 1984 (4 days)

Martha's calf born on 17th September 1993 and died on 14th November 1993 (2 months)

Spooky's calf was stillborn on 17th September 1993

Kia's calf was born on 25th September 1993 and died on 15th Feb 1995 (18 months)

Nanuq arrives at Seaworld California 27th July 1997 but the deaths continue.

Up to this point no calves had survived at Seaworld

This was what his life at Seaworld was all about, much the same as Tilikum's. A viable bull, even if like in this video he didn't want to be one.

 Nanuq arrived at San Diego in 1997, he was moved around the parks going to San Antonio in 2005 and back again to San Diego. As you can see from the video here, Seaworld says he has to establish himself as the top bull with 10 year old Aurek, which is a direct contradiction to the statement given to the press  ''two animals that were part of a compatible social group''!!

And yet the babies continue dying, including 5 of Nanuq's own calves.

Olivia born SW Texas 19th June 1998 father unknown died 20th April 2005 (aged 7)

Hudnall born SW Florida 27 June 1999 died 4th October 2003 (aged 4)

Martha's calf born and died 2000

Kia's calf was still a fetus found when doing her necropsy

Whisper was just 7 years old when she had a stillborn calf to Nanuq 

Sikku was just 9 when her calf died also fathered by Nanuq

Ruby was 28 years old when she was AI's with Nanuq's sperm her baby was born on 28th May 2008 and died on the 18th June 2008 (1 month)

Whisper now aged 9 was AI'd with Nanuq's sperm on 27th July 2008 she had twins both died within a month

Ruby now 32 had a stillborn in July 2012 also to Nanuq 

Of those calves Nanuq still has living - 
Atla was born at San Diego to Luna she was AI'd aged 10, Luna still lives in Texas and her baby Atla was move to San Diego aged 4.

Ruby was 30 when she had Pearl  on 23rd June 2010 Ruby died on 3rd July 2014 leaving Pearl behind.

Oliver - born to Martina in San Antonio on 23rd June 2007.  Martina died in January 2009

Crissy was AI'd aged 11 with Nanuq's sperm producing Bella on 12th June 2009 both are still alive
 

 The tanks at Seaworld parks now contain
Seaworld San Diego - of 24 Belugas they now have only 6 remaining. 2 were wild caught and 3 babies

Seaworld Orlando

Have Whisper who sadly lost 2 of Nanuq's babies being pregnant at 7 and again by AI at 9.

They also have Klondike who was taken from his mother at Marineland Canada aged 4, Aurek who was taken the same way aged 3 and Maple who was also taken the same way aged 3. They had only Whisper left after 3 deaths which is probably why they acquired more.

 

 Seaworld San Antonio
 San Antonio had 28 Belugas, they have 10 left.

The Beluga breeding programme at Seaworld is shocking, of all the Belugas that have lived and died in the park only 9 babies have survived and they have held Belugas since 1975, 40 years to produce 9 living babies at the expense of all those dead.

Its not just Seaworld it is the captive Beluga population in the USA that speaks volumes for them NOT being in captivity. All the parks stick together as we saw in the Beluga Importation from Russia, that were going directly to Seaworld and Shedd  and no where near Georgia Aquarium. They also swap and change their Belugas as we can see with the residents in Georgia Aquariums's tanks now.

Mystic Aquarium has 3 living and 8 dead 2 of which were wild caught and Juno who arrived from Marineland Canada via Sea World Florida.

Georgia Aquarium have 4 living who all belong to Seaworld the last 2 being only 2 and 3 years old.

Shedd Aquarium  have 7 living and 9 are dead.

Vancouver Aquarium have the only other mother and calf belonging to Nanuq, they have 12 dead.

We all know Marineland Canada also has Belugas which they import from Russia

They currently hold 45 Belugas, 20 have been born there and 25 are Russian importations. They have 25 dead. Mystic have 1 of their Belugas and Seaworld have 3, they were born at the park but as in the transfer of Kiara the dolphin from Japan, Seaworld know the parents are Russian imports, just as they know Kiara's parents are drive hunt dolphins.

Where ever there is a loophole these people will exploit it and the above figures show there is very clear evidence that Belugas ARE NOT THRIVING IN CAPTIVITY, and it needs to come to an end.















 

The First Cetaceans on Display 1861 - birth of the captive industry.

Barnum opened his museum on January 1, 1842 to create a place where families could go for wholesome, affordable entertainment, but his success drew from the fact that he knew how to entice an audience. Its attractions made it a combination zoo, museum, lecture hall, wax museum, theater and freak show, that was, at the same time, a central site in the development of American popular culture. Barnum filled the American Museum with scientific instruments, modern appliances, a flea circus, a loom run by a dog, the trunk of a tree under which Jesus’ disciples sat, a hat worn by Ulysses S. Grant, an oyster bar, a rifle range, waxworks, glass blowers, taxidermists, phrenologists, pretty-baby contests, Ned the learned seal, the Feejee Mermaid (a mummified monkey’s torso with a fish’s tail), midgets, Chang and Eng the Siamese twins, a menagerie of exotic animals that included beluga whales in an aquarium, giants, Grizzly Adams’s trained bears and performances ranging from magicians, ventriloquists and blackface minstrels to adaptations of biblical tales and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

Mermaid

On July 13, 1865, the American Museum burned to the ground in one of the most spectacular fires New York has ever seen. Animals at the museum were seen jumping from the burning building, only to be shot by police officers. The Beluga's obviously did not escape.

Barnum's Tiger

  Barnum tried to open another museum soon after that, but that also burned down in a mysterious fire in 1868. It was after this time that Barnum moved on to politics and the circus industry. Barnum's American Museum was one of the most popular attractions of its time

The two newspaper reports below show the excitement of capturing wild whales, and despite their deaths, Barnum used this as a hook to get people through the door, the animals deaths it seemed were irrelevant.

The Whales, New York Tribune, August 9, 1861

In the summer of 1861, Barnum trumpeted his latest American Museum exhibit: two live white (or beluga) whales. This newspaper report on the arrival of the whales reflects the excitement and wonder that, in an era before zoos, New Yorkers might have felt at seeing live animals in captivity. This was Barnum's first attempt to exhibit live whales (the museum was on its eighth and ninth whales when it burned down in 1865), and his promotion of the animals highlighted the enormous undertaking of capturing them in Canada and transporting them New York.

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A real live whale is as great a curiosity as a live lord or prince, being much more difficult to catch, and far more wonderful in its appearance and habits. After all people are people, and have much the same ways of feeling and doing. But when we get among the whales, we catch glimpses of a new and neat thing in the nose, recall the narrative of Jonah without throwing a shadow of doubt upon its authenticity, and appreciate keenly the difficulties with which mermaid society must have to contend.

We owe the presence of two whales in our midst to the enterprise of Mr. P. T. Barnum. He has had them in tow for a long while, but has kept his secret well, and it was not until his own special whaler telegraphed from Troy that he had come so far into the bowels of the earth with his submarine charge, and all well, that he felt warranted in whispering whale to the public. The public was delighted but not surprised, because it feels that the genius that is equal to a What Is It is also equal to the biggest thing, and would experience no unusual thrill of wonder if a real iceberg, or a section of the identical North Pole, should be announced on the bills of the Museum.
But flocks of the public sought the Museum yesterday, and were not disappointed. They saw not, as Pelonius, something "very like a whale," but the original animal in his original element. The bears, and the anacondas, the hatchet, and the seal, sank into merited insignificance, although they will have their day again if the whales should expire. The transfer of the fish was neatly effected. They traveled the whole distance in first-class hermetical boxes, filled with water and thickly lined with sea-weed, and were landed, if the expression may be used, in the new and excellent tank provided for them in the basement of the Museum. This tank is 58 feet deep and 25 in width, has 7 feet of sea water in it, and seems to suit the whales eminently. Mr. Barnum has fears that the pets will have but a brief, if brilliant, career, in their new quarters, but we prefer to predict for them a long and happy one.
These are white whales and were taken near the Labrador coast by a crew of thirty-five men. The largest has attained the extreme size reached by this species, and is about 23 feet long; the other is 18 feet long. Their form and motion are graceful and their silver backs and bellies show brightly through the water. A long-continued intimacy has endeared them to each other, and they go about quite like a pair of whispering lovers, blowing off their mutual admiration in a very emphatic manner. Just at present they are principally engaged in throwing their eyes around the premises and paying small attention to visitors, upon whom, indeed the narrative of Jonah has a strong hold. Yet neither of these whales should make a single mouthful of a man of ordinary size. Even if one of them should succeed in swallowing a man, he could just stand up with the whale, and make it at least as uncomfortable as himself.
Here is a real "sensation." We do not believe the enterprise of Mr. Barnum will stop at white whales. It will embrace sperm whales and mermaids, and all strange things that swim or fly or crawl, until the Museum will become one vast microcosm of the animal creation. A quarter seems positively contemptible weighed against such a treat.

Source: New York Tribune, August 9, 1861

 

At some point there must have been one whale left as this ad shows

Ad for Whales, July 2, 1865

In an era before the common exhibition of animals in zoos and circuses, the arrival of "two living white whales" in lower Manhattan was a noteworthy event. While other natural history museums of the period tried to present animals with images of their natural habitats and avoided mention of their capture, the American Museum often stressed the opposite. The animals themselves, as well as their natural habitats and habits, frequently paled in comparison to Barnum's heroic tales of acquisition. In the case of the beluga whales, the exhibit highlighted the elaborate process of their capture and transportation to New York. Barnum spurred attendance with hints, born out by past experience, that the whales might not survive for long in captivity.

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BARNUM'S AMERICAN MUSEUM
. . . . TWO LIVING WHITE WHALES
weighing TWENTY THOUSANDS POUNDS per registers
Hudson River Railroad Co.,
after several months of immense labor and at an expense of
NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS,
were captured and brought to this city from the coast of Labrador and are
now disporting in that MINATURE OCEAN,
the MAMMOTH WHALE TANK,
the only specimen to be seen alive.
NOW IS THE TIME
to see these wonders as
THEIR LIVES ARE UNCERTAIN,
seven of the same species having died while being exhibited at this
Museum.
GEORGE, the great WHALE CAPTURER, will enter
the WHALE TANK every day at 10 3/4 A.M., 2 1/4 and 7 3/4 P. M.

Source: New York Herald July 2, 1965

 In hindsight Mr Barnum had a lot to answer for, captive cetaceans started to become an interest and viewed as money makers,  although their success was short lived as in those days they were hard to keep alive and it was not until 1938 that the first display facility opened properly.   After the fires Mr Barnum went on to display his cetaceans as part of the circus. The picture below puts me in mind of the Russian Circus's still circulating today.

Through his desire to show the world animals they might not have seen, and in his lust for glory at being able to capture such creatures,  the captive industry was born.