THE PROVINCE
Latest News
Beluga off to SeaWorld in San Diego
Vancouver Aquarium mainstay sent for breeding
Lora Grindlay
The Province
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Allua, one of the Vancouver Aquarium's beluga whales, is moving to a new home at SeaWorld San Diego this month.
"She'll be missed," said Brian Sheehan, the aquarium's curator of marine mammals. "She's got a great personality.
"What we want to do is give all the people that have got to know Allua time to come down and say goodbye to her."
The 21-year-old female is going to SeaWorld on an indefinite breeding loan.
It's hoped that Allua, who was captured in Churchill, Man., and brought to the aquarium in 1985, will get pregnant at her new home. She has shown little interest in the aquarium's male belugas.
"Sometimes different surroundings or different groupings of animals can result in mating," Sheehan said. "For whatever reason there hasn't been the interest between the males and Allua here at the aquarium."
Despite never having given birth, 900-kilogram Allua is known as a super mom.
She has been an enthusiastic helper with 17-year-old Aurora's calves. She was an attentive caregiver to Qila, born in 1995, and disciplined and even helped nurse two-year-old Tuvaq.
Sheehan said on moving day, which has not been determined, Allua will be coaxed into a sling and hoisted by crane into a water-filled crate fixed to a flatbed truck.
She will be driven to the airport and take the four-hour flight to San Diego on a specially chartered airplane.
Five belugas will remain after Allua leaves.
Annelise Sorg of the Coalition for No Whales in Captivity was not impressed.
"Is this what we want to continue doing -- breeding animals for entertainment?
Allua is "a great beluga," Sorg said.
"She doesn't fight with anybody. She's just a sweetheart of a beluga."
Nanuq, a beluga, was given to SeaWorld San Diego on a breeding loan in 1997.
He has not sired any calves and has since been moved to SeaWorld in San Antonio, Texas.
lgrindlay@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2005