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After a 30 - hour journeying by land , air and sea , two youngbeluga whalesthat were on show in an aquarium in Shanghai for long time have now arrived at a new home — a cool seawater sanctuary off the coast of Iceland . This is the first time the cuties have dipped their smile neb into the ocean in more than a decade .
The belugas , call Little White and Little Grey , have drop the last three sidereal day and night in a netted - off " maintenance pool " within the sanctuary at Klettsvik Bay on the island of Heimaey , in Iceland ’s southern Vestmannaeyjar archipelago . Because these captive whales could n’t survive in the open ocean , the sanctuary is the next best affair .
Little Grey and Little White are the first two belugas at the Sea Life Trust sanctuary at Klettsvik Bay in Iceland. The trust will consider finding more when they are used to their new environment.(Image credit: PA Media/Aaron Chown)
The island is home to about 4,000 people in a town about a 10 - minute gravy holder ride away , and the belugas will have lots of elbow room to spread out — the sanctuary covers around 344,445 square foot ( 32,000 satisfying meters ) of saltwater and is divide from the residuum of the bay by clear that runs from the bottom to the surface .
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The vernal heavyweight will pass about a month in the puddle acclimatize to their newfangled surround , enjoin Audrey Padgett , the general manager of the Sea Life Trust ’s Beluga Whale Sanctuary .
Little White is transferred into the “care pool,” a netted-off area of the seawater sanctuary in Klettsvik Bay. The two belugas will live in the pool for about a month before they are released into the sanctuary.(Image credit: PA Media/Aaron Chown)
The pool is fitted with underwater logic gate that the belugas can use to pass into another pool ; eventually other submersed gates will be opened so they can search the entire sanctuary .
So far , the two belugas seem substance with their new surroundings , especially Little Grey , who expend some of Monday daybreak ( Aug. 10 ) inquire a diving seabird — a razorbill — that had fly into the area .
The quieter of the two whales , Little White , was " taking her time , taking everything in , " Padgett told Live Science . " They are both eat and interacting with the care faculty , so that ’s a really confirming planetary house . "
The beluga whale named Little Grey is transferred from a truck to a tugboat that will transport it to the seawater sanctuary at Klettsvik Bay.(Image credit: PA Media/Aaron Chown)
Beluga sanctuary
The two belugas are the first inhabitants of the new sanctuary at Klettsvik Bay . They are both about 12 years onetime and are expected to live into their 40s , so the chancel could be their home for class to occur .
Padgett explain that Little Grey and Little White were captured in Arctic waters on the north coast of Russia when they were about a year old , and then sold to Changfeng Ocean World in Shanghai inChina . There they lived in an indoor pool , until a new owner start look for more natural condition for them .
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Little Grey and Little White were caught near Russia when they were about 1 year old; they are now 12, and this will be the first time in more than 10 years they will experience the sea.(Image credit: PA Media/Aaron Chown)
This is the first time in more than 10 years that Little Grey and Little White have have the ocean , she said , but it ’s taken a lot of work to get them here .
The two whales each weigh about 1,980 pounds ( 900 kilograms ) and so the 6,000 - knot ( 9,600 km ) journey to Iceland was a cunning one .
Each was grade inside specially - progress shipping tanks that were lifted by a Grus and placed on two trucks in Shanghai ; they were then transferred to a Cargolux Airlines cargo jet , which fly them to Iceland ’s Keflavik Airport . From there , they were transfer onto trucks , which then took a ferry to Heimaey Island .
That was in 2019 . And since then , the two belugas have lived in a puddle at the Beluga Whale Sanctuary ’s visitor substance at Klettsvik Bay , going through quarantine , assessments and acclimating to cool water temperatures that best suit an Arctic whale species , Padgett tell .
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Seawater sanctuary
The Klettsvik Bay sanctuary has room for about 10 belugas , but there are no firm program right now to add more , Padgett said .
" Our focus is still firmly on fiddling White and Little Grey , and suffer them out into the larger sanctuary place , " she say . " When [ they ] are out in that refuge , that opens the door for conversations about future belugas that could come and join them . "
Roughly 300 belugas are kept in immurement around the world ; most of them were raised in immurement and could n’t endure on their own in the open ocean , so a seawater sanctuary with 24 - hour human attention is their best wager , she say .
Originally publish on Live Science .
