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Death sudden for little beluga
Shocked aquarium staff look to autopsy for some answers

Glenda Luymes
The Province

Monday, July 18, 2005

CREDIT: Jason Payne, The Province
Visitors to the beluga whale pool at the Vancouver Aquarium yesterday found signs cancelling the daily show.

Tuvaq, the Vancouver Aquarium's youngest and most mischievous beluga, died yesterday. He was three days shy of his third birthday.

"We had a job to do today, so we pulled together and did it," marine mammal curator Brian Sheehan said. "It was a hard day, but tomorrow will be even harder when [Tuvaq's] not here."

Aquarium veterinarian Dave Huff said he suspects an autopsy will find evidence of a catastrophic medical problem.

Huff likened the whale's death to a 24-year-old, athletic human dropping dead. He said Tuvaq could have suffered from an aneurysm, stroke or heart attack. There was nothing to suggest the 2.9-metre, 625-kilogram whale was ill.

Huff performed Tuvaq's routine bi-monthly blood test before the whale ate some herring and swam out to play. Tuvaq stopped breathing and died "almost instantaneously" at 10:30 a.m.

"He was, as far as we knew, the picture of health," said Huff. "It would be very, very odd to have illness kill an animal this quickly without any preceding signs."

Huff said Tuvaq's death also shocked the juvenile beluga's mother, Aurora, and aunt, Allua, who were in the pool with him when he died. They nuzzled Tuvaq and tried to be as close as they could to his body. Staff kept the whales together in the medical isolation pool for about 90 minutes before Tuvaq's body was removed with a crane and trucked to Abbotsford, where an autopsy is to be done at the animal health centre.

"There's no question they know he's passed on," said Huff. "There's no question they care."

Belugas typically live between 40 and 50 years in the wild.

Tuvaq was born July 20, 2002 and was Aurora's second calf. Qila, Tuvaq's half-sister, was born July 23, 1995. The aquarium was planning a joint birthday party for the whales.

Huff said Tuvaq had a great life at the aquarium. With no medical problems, there is no reason to believe his life in captivity played a role in his death.

"In his short three years, he basically had a ball," he said. "He was, literally, a little brat. He just had a grand old time."

Said Sheehan: "He was the typical little brother. He was known for doing funny things. You saw him coming and you knew he was up to some sort of mischief. He knew which animals he could get a reaction from, and they'd play chase him around. This was so unexpected."

The director of the Coalition For No Whales in Captivity, Annelise Sorg, said she wasn't surprised by Tuvaq's death.

"We hear about baby whales dying in captivity all the time," she said. "We're appalled that another whale has died here in Vancouver. This tragedy has to stop."

The coalition is calling on the Vancouver parks board to let the public decide the fate of the whales.

"We want them to hold a civic referendum, added to the ballot of the November civic election, asking if Vancouverites want whale tanks at their aquarium," she said.

Parks board member Anita Romaniuk said a referendum wouldn't affect the aquarium's practices because its lease from the City of Vancouver allows it to keep whales.

"At the parks board a lot of us have concerns about the difficulty of breeding whales," she said. "The aquarium had no success with orcas and limited success with belugas. Now, with another baby dying, it adds more problems.

"One of the things we could consider might be a moratorium on breeding."

In the past 30 years, five whale calves have died at the aquarium, including two belugas and three orcas. gluymes@png.canwest.com

FIVE FATALITIES

Whale deaths at the Vancouver Aquarium:

1977: Tuaq, a beluga, is born after being conceived in the wild. After four months the whale dies of infection.

1988: Killer whale Bjossa gives birth to her first calf, but it dies three weeks later after she fails to nurse it properly.

1991: K'yosha, another orca, is born and survives three months before dying of a brain infection.

1995: Bjossa's third calf dies just minutes after birth from labour complications.

2005: Tuvaq dies just days before his third birthday.

Ran with fact box "Five fatalities", which has been appendedto the story.
© The Vancouver Province 2005

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WESTCOAST NEWS
Baby beluga dies in front of crowd
Tuvaq, who would have been three in three days, suddenly stopped breathing

Brad Badelt
Vancouver Sun

July 18, 2005

VANCOUVER - Vancouver Aquarium's youngest beluga whale died unexpectedly Sunday morning, just three days before his third birthday. It's the first beluga calf to have died at the aquarium in almost 30 years.

Tuvaq, one of only two belugas conceived and born at the Vancouver Aquarium, was swimming in the pool with the other five belugas in front of a crowd of onlookers when he suddenly stopped breathing.

Vancouver Aquarium veterinarian Dave Huff said there were no signs that the young whale, who had just had a routine blood sample taken, was ill.

"We don't have the slightest idea [what caused his death]," Huff said. "The only thing you could possibly speculate on is ... that it's more likely a catastrophic event like a stroke or a heart attack or an aneurism."

"Having said that, wild animals tend to have a tremendous ability to hide illness," he said.

Tuvaq weighed more than 600 kilograms and was about 2.9 metres long. Belugas typically live up to 50 years.

"The best analogy I could make is a fit, 18-year-old football pLayer just keeling over and dying on the field," Huff said.

After Tuvaq died, Huff said the other whales in the pool stayed by his side for several hours.

"It was kind of heart-wrenching because his mom and aunt stayed right by his side -- not just close to him but touching him," he said. "There's absolutely no question they knew he had passed away and there's no question that they cared too.

"I guess they were just saying goodbye."

Tuvaq was taken to the provincial animal pathology lab in Abbotsford on Sunday where Huff said a full examination will be done either Sunday afternoon or Monday morning to determine the cause of death.

"There is the outside chance that it was an illness and that we should know about and that it could have a potential impact on our other animals," he said.

Annelise Sorg, spokeswoman for the Coalition for No Whales in Captivity, said the calf's death is a sign that belugas are not meant to live in captivity.

"It's been proven that whales and dolphins suffer greatly in captivity," she said. "They show stereotypical behaviour, they show ailments that you would not see in the wild.

"I think that we have evolved enough to know that large wild animals that are as intelligent as whales should be left in the wild."

Sorg said the Vancouver Aquarium no longer imports orca whales following the death of three orcas in the late 1990s, and added that belugas must now be phased out as well.

"This is something that has been brought about for other species ... now we have to do the same for belugas," she said.

But Huff said Tuvaq's death is extremely unusual, even for a captive whale. "I've been doing this for an awful long time and I'm at least vaguely familiar with most of the belugas in captivity around the world and I've never heard of something like this happening," he said.

bbadelt@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2005