Acclimating Beluga Whales Into Georgia Aquarium | The Aquarium

It's midnight. Right now, we're just waiting for Whisper to be offloaded from the truck. We're so excited, and we're anxious, and we're just ready to get these guys. EMAC is moving from an aquarium in Texas and Whisper from one in Florida. Throughout their transport, they were accompanied by veterinarians and our staff, as well as staff from their own facilities that they were familiar with, to make sure that they're comfortable throughout their journey. This is their tail side facing us. We're going to go straight in, and we're going to turn to the left. We're going to offload Whisper first and move her over into our beluga whale secondary pool, which is just adjacent to our main habitat. Please count out breath. Their breathing, whether it increases or decreases, could give us some indication of how they're faring through the move. All right. Pivot. Good. Stop. All right. Who's on her hoist? Just keep going up, OK? That's good, Coleman. OK, guys, let's push this box out of the way. Good girl. Breath. Stephanie, can you get some ice? Oh, baby. Is that ice going on her? Yeah. OK, let's go. The stretcher that we use to lift the whales is made out of a soft nylon that's lined with a fleece that helps protect the animals. It supports their weight while they're lifted out of the water, and then cradles them while they're in the transport carrier. OK, we're going to go all the way up. Watch your flukes, please. OK, stop. OK, we're going to float her over the pole on the north side. Good girl. OK, hold. I'm going to help you bridge. Everyone can peel off. Are you ready? Everybody off. Be careful of flukes. Nice job, guys. Stretch it out, sweet girl. OK, close. Good job. So now it's time to go get Emac. Look at this guy. Hey, buddy. The beluga whales aren't quarantined in the traditional sense that we might see with many of our other animals that we bring to the Georgia Aquarium. That's because these animals are managed at only a handful of facilities. And prior to the transport itself, we're monitoring the health of those individual animals very carefully to make sure that those animals are healthy and OK to make the move. He's nice. Yeah, no, he's great. It's good to see these two swimming around and being really calm despite the long journey they've just had. Putting on the move. Right? Wipe right. High five. Yay. I can't stop smiling. These guys are getting used to the space. There's not a definitive amount of time that Whisper and Emac will remain in the secondary pool. Really depends on them getting comfortable with each other. Could be a day or so. Our plan tonight is making sure that they're continuing to acclimate. Then we'll look at introducing them to the other whales. Good job, guys. Thank you. Hey, right there. Good morning. It's been a little over 24 hours since the beluga whales Emac and Whisper arrived from the aquariums in San Antonio and Florida. Yesterday was our first full day working with them. Good morning, Whispy. It went really well overall. Emac seems to be very comfortable in his new environment. Whisper did take a little bit, but she looks a lot more comfortable. Where am I? I didn't even do anything. I'm not even splashing. There you go. Good thing Glubber's beautiful. It is so beautiful. Yeah, girl. Today's the big day that we are going to be introducing our two groups of whales. The whales that we've had here and established are going to be introduced to Whisper and Emac. Don't be surprised if we see, like, whitewater and chasing and obviously hear some vocalizations. I think Emac's a pretty easygoing guy, but if things are not going in a way that we want, you know, we can start closing some gates and establish some control and reinforce calm. All right. Belugas are pretty docile for the most part, but they, you know, they can amp up, and you might see some, you know, dominance displays. I've got Maple, Kenu. There's a whole social structure that's got to change a little bit here with the addition of two new animals. Hey, guys. You're going to meet so many girls. Be exciting to see how that plays out. Everybody good? Yep. You want to go look at him? I think she might. All right, go ahead and break. OK, I'm up. And there. Here they come. Whisper's just like, Emac, I'm hanging on to you, buddy. Emac's setting the tone, so Whisper's just kind of following under him. Not too sure. Look at how they're huddled. Three whales staring through the main gate and the other two new whales hanging out here in our medical pool. The medical pool seems to be like the middle ground. That's the hot spot. Yeah. Who's going to be the first brave whale to cross the threshold? Oh, there he goes. That's good. Whisper's right in there. This echelon swimming where they're all really close and swimming together is a really positive sign. Look at that. With the addition of Emac and Whisper, that brings our pod to a total number of five belugas. We have three females and two males. This is a number that you could see in their natural environment. Some pods of belugas can get up to over 200 plus. I mean, it's quite a sight. It's really cool. Who's the odd one out? Nunavik. All the girls are behind Emac. Oh, wait a second.