Marineland in Niagara Falls, Canada, has euthanized a seven-year-old beluga whale named Eos due to severe health issues. Eos is the 18th beluga to die at Marineland since 2019.
“Yet another beluga whale has been euthanized at MarineLand. This time, it was Eos, a young (7-year-old) female. Thirty-one beluga whales remain,” Phil Demers, a former Marineland trainer and co-founder of UrgentSeas.
The amusement park announced the decision on social media, stating that Eos had suffered from renal disease and infections since 2021. Despite intensive treatment, her condition worsened in recent months.
The park has faced criticism for its treatment of marine animals, with multiple deaths reported, including Kiska, Canada’s last captive orca, who died in 2023.
Several other marine animals, including a dolphin, seals, sea lions, and penguins, have also died at the park in recent years.
Ontario’s Animal Welfare Services confirmed Eos’s death on Thursday. While Marineland has been under investigation for poor water quality since 2020, officials stated that recent marine mammal deaths were not linked to this issue.
However, the park was previously ordered to improve water conditions after inspectors found that all marine mammals were in distress. The repeated deaths at Marineland continue to raise concerns about animal welfare at the facility.
In the wild, beluga whales are highly social and live in pods, often migrating long distances in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. They use echolocation to navigate and communicate and can live up to 50 years.
They hunt for fish, squid, and crustaceans. Their biggest threats in the wild are climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction.
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