Second beluga imported from Canada has since died, and another is reportedly ill
By Cynthia Drummond / ecoRI News contributor
The beluga whales imported from an aquarium in Canada joined other belugas that are featured in the Mystic Aquarium’s Arctic Coast exhibit. (Cynthia Drummond photos)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture found three “critical violations” of
the federal Animal Welfare Act during an inspection of Mystic Aquarium after
the August 2021 death of a beluga whale imported from Canada.
Since
that inspection, in September of 2021, another imported beluga whale died, on
Feb. 11.
Paula
Gladue, attending veterinarian for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS), inspected
the aquarium’s beluga facility last year. She was accompanied by Tonya Hadjis,
a supervisory animal-care specialist, and Carolyn McKinnie, senior veterinary
medical officer for Marine Mammals and Exotics.
The
inspection followed the death of Havok, one
of five beluga whales imported last May by Mystic Aquarium from Marineland in
Ontario, Canada. Marineland is the last aquarium in Canada that continue to
exhibit whales and dolphins. The facility is permitted to keep them but
prohibited from acquiring new animals or allowing the resident animals to
breed.
Naomi
Rose, a whale biologist and marine mammal scientist with the Washington,
D.C.-based advocacy group the Animal Welfare Institute, said the USDA
inspection of Mystic Aquarium was not routine.
“The
reason they did that was because these animals were imported under a research
permit,” she said. The Marine Mammal Protection Act, adopted in 1972,
regulates the importation of marine mammals and marine mammal products into the
United States. Because the Mystic Aquarium belugas were imported on a research
permit, “APHIS went in to look at the records very thoroughly after Havok died
and what they found in those records was actually quite a surprise to
everybody,” Rose said.
The inspection report, signed by Gladue, describes several serious issues, including three classified as “critical violations” of the Animal Welfare Act that required immediate attention, because they can cause harm to the animals in question. According to the report, Havok, who at 5 years old was a young whale, was on a 24-hour watch because of ongoing health problems.
In the eight hours before his death, which
occurred Aug. 6, 2021, he began exhibiting symptoms of extreme discomfort and
distress, according to the report. The team monitoring Havok observed and
documented the behaviors, but failed to notify the attending veterinarian,
according to the report.
The
report said Havok was rolling frequently, had “gaspy” respiration, water coming
from his blowhole, and was seen “actively” bleeding from a wound two hours
before his death.
Rose
said a veterinarian should have been called sooner.
“They
spent hours observing him and didn’t call the vet,” she said. “The point is,
had they called the vet when he first started behaving oddly, which was the
whole point of the 24/7 watch, there are two possibilities. One is, they might
have relieved his discomfort, or whatever it was that was causing him to behave
that way, with drugs, or they might have concluded that he was in fact dying
and euthanized him.”
Children watch beluga whales swimming in their tank at Mystic
Aquarium. Last year the Connecticut aquarium imported five
belugas from Marineland in Canada, two of which have since died.
The
report found, “The facility failed to provide adequate veterinary care by not
using appropriate methods to prevent, control, diagnose and treat diseases
during Havok’s last eight hours.”
Havok
also had poor vision and multiple wounds, according to the report, including an
injury from a collision with one of the gates that separates the aquarium’s
three pools. In June 2021 the gates between all three pools were opened,
allowing the new whales to interact with the aquarium’s resident beluga whales.
According
to the report, after the gates were opened, “A visitor dropped a foreign object
in the main pool, which according to facility employees is not unexpected when
there are a lot of visitors present at the exhibits. According to facility
employees, in response to the foreign object, they closed the gate to the
holding pool.” The handlers kept the other whales focused and still — a
practice called stationing — but not Havok, according to the report.
The
whale, which according to the report had been receiving treatment for two weeks
for an ocular condition that resulted in compromised vision, “was startled by
the net in the main pool and then swam toward the holding pool after the gate
was shut. Havok swam straight into the gate,” re-opening a wound on his upper
jaw and creating a new wound on his upper left mandible.
Rose
said she did not understand why the gate separating the tanks was not left
open, so Havok, who was known to be skittish, could escape the main tank if he
was afraid or felt threatened.
“The
most important thing is leave the new animal with a ‘bolt hole,’ somewhere to
run away to,” she said. “So he spooks and runs for the back tank. Where else
would he go? And he just smashes right into the gate.”
The
third violation cited in the report was the condition of the pools, which
resulted in several injuries that Havok sustained from bumping into the surface
of his enclosure.
“Indoor
and outdoor housing facilities for marine mammals must be structurally sound
and must be maintained in good repair to protect the animals from injury,” the
report stated.
Other
issues cited in the report, but not deemed critical, were the lack of
“consistent” shade to protect the whales from the sun, and the water quality in
the tank, which contained elevated levels of “oxidation reduction potential,”
a measurement of ozone in the water. Higher ozone levels, which were present
from July 31, 2021, to Aug. 27, 2021, can irritate whales’ eyes, skin, and
respiratory systems.
The
report noted the shade issue was corrected in December 2021, and the water
quality in the pools was addressed before a second inspection in February.
Rose
was one of a group of marine mammal protection advocates in both the U.S.
and Canada who lobbied against an import
permit for the five belugas that were transferred. The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Agency approved the permit to
import the belugas, on the condition that they be used for research and not for
public entertainment, although the whales would be on display at Mystic
Aquarium.
The
USDA also requires that live animals entering the country be examined by a
veterinarian and declared fit for transport within 10 days of transport. Mystic
asked to substitute three of the five belugas because a trio in the original
group were ill. But at least one of the substitute whales — Havok — suffered
from ulcers, although the official cause of his death was inflammatory bowel
disease.
Rose
said Havok’s poor physical health should have prevented him from traveling.
“He
had ulcers, in his throat, in his stomach, in his intestines, gastrointestinal
ulcers throughout his gastrointestinal system. But he also apparently had a
recurring problem of inflammatory bowel disease,” she said. “He apparently had
problems before he was transported from Marineland. You don’t subject an animal
to intense stress while they’ve got that kind of condition. They knew about the
ulcers, and they transported him anyway.”
The
final necropsy report has not been released for Havana, the second imported
whale that died in February. The condition and prognosis of a third ailing
whale, also from Canada, is unknown.
Rose
said she was waiting for the release of the final report on Havana. “We are
waiting for the final report, because there is no cause of death yet,” she
said. “And then we learned, when she died, that there was still a whale in ICU,
the intensive care, but we don’t know who it is.”
Rose
sent a letter dated
March 25 to officials at the National Marine Fisheries Service, APHIS, and the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service raising concerns about the importation of
whales that were not entirely healthy when they entered the country.
“We
surmise that none of the whales were actually healthy in the weeks and possibly
days prior to the transport,” she wrote. “Moreover, after postponing the
transport multiple times and having already substituted three whales, Mystic
Aquarium apparently felt it could no longer wait, nor make another request for
a permit amendment. We further surmise that this resulted in an entirely
artificial feeling of urgency and led to the rash decision to move Havok and
the other four whales before they were truly robust enough to withstand the
stress of transport (of which Mystic Aquarium, of all facilities, is well
aware, given the research done there). We firmly believe Mystic was wrong to do
so.”
Rose
said one of the points of her letter was to prompt federal officials to require
a detailed examination, not only by a veterinarian from the exporting aquarium,
but also by an independent veterinarian to ensure that imported animals are
truly healthy.
“They
knew they were transporting a whale with a preexisting condition,” she said.
“How could they do that, when they had committed in writing to only moving
healthy whales? He was not healthy.”
Neither
the USDA nor a Mystic Aquarium spokesperson responded to requests for comment.
