> The whales are all doing well, and are eating, interacting with each other, swimming normally, playing with their enrichment toys, and soliciting attention from the trainers

Sorry, that's not normalcy. Locking a whale in a pool for life is cruel.

It's a matter of demand and offer. If people were not going to zoos and aquariums there would be no incentive to operate for those type of businesses.

This is a moral issue, not one to be settled by looking at what people are willing to spend money on.

Just because people enjoy foie gras doesn't mean it's morally permissible to force-feed-to-death sentient beings.

Would you have the same thoughts about sex slaves or indetured servants?

Protecting an imoral industry because there is a demand for it is imoral.

Just to be clear, I am totally against zoos and aquariums. Just wanted to mention that a lot of evil activities in this world are caused by 'demand and offer'. The issue you mention, zoos, aquariums, killing of elephants, rhinos, and other animals for their furs and tusks, oil extraction, plastic pollution, onlyfans, etc would all not exist if no one was willing to pay for these things or services.

So what I wanted to say is that change comes from consumers, and as such if we choose to say no by not giving our money for anything immoral, we can kill those activities.

"This is it. This is the countdown to extinction." Megadeth

Marineland is a disgraceful blight on Niagara and the province of Ontario in general. It should have been shut down decades ago.

This comment adds nothing to the conversation. It's just 100% vitriol.

Okay.

Marineland has been the subject of many, many scandals and investigations (non-exhaustive, see Wikipedia for sources and a complete list): - illegally capturing dolphins - 15 premature orca deaths - 5 premature beluga deaths - the owner shot a fawn in the throat and let it bleed out - the park has mass graves for its animals on its property - the park has been investigated several times for its water quality, including after the death of a seal and injury of several others on loan from the Vancouver Aquarium

Anecdotally, from my last visit to Marineland (before I was aware of just how disgusting the park is) - the bears almost universally have patches of missing fur - the whales have almost no room to swim

I feel nothing but 100% vitriol towards Marineland. It's one giant animal abuse system, and this has been well documented by Ontario newspapers. The owner, John Holer, is an awful person who profits from the suffering of intelligent animals and I would like nothing better than to see him lose his fortune and spend time behind bars.

Thank you for prompting me to be more complete in my criticism of Marineland. Marineland is a disgraceful blight on Niagara and the province of Ontario in general. It should have been shut down decades ago.

John Holer died in 2018

I’m an avid diver, resident of CT, and have a higher tier membership with Mystic Aquarium. This has been a very big deal around the state - with efforts from the congressmen and senators to lobby the federal government. Multiple emails went out on a frequent basis to the aquarium members to lobby for the permit for Mystic Aquarium. In February they launched an fundraising campaign with a $500k matching grant to care for the belugas. In December their year-end giving appeal was “Act Now to Help Bring Five Belugas to Mystic”.

And then, nothing.

I find an article about it on Hacker News of all places.

I get that there was some sensitivity about it given the lawsuits they had to fend off, but while we got an email about changes to the dinosaur exhibit this week, they didn’t even mention the belugas.

Maybe SpaceX has spoiled me by setting a standard for showing off their work.

Could have been the same reason: if they had announced the incoming belugas, they could have been intercepted in-flight by the same people behind the lawsuits?

>NOAA’s approval outlined a number of key restrictions to what Mystic Aquarium can do with the whales, including barring them from breeding...

I don't understand this restriction. Honestly the entire endeavour of taking n animal and reducing its movement by a two or three orders of magnitude looks extremely cruel on its own face.

But, if you're going to do it then why aren't they allowed to breed in captivity?

It may be about lineage. Rules governing breeding programs in zoo's have strict requirements to prevent inbreeding:

> all five of the transported whales’ mothers are from this stock, although it’s unclear where their fathers came from.

Lack of documented heritage would be a red flag for any official breeding program.

No- it's about federal power.

The department making the rules likely wouldn't have any federal jurisdiction over any offspring, as they'd be privately owned, and would not be "imported wildlife." They do, however, have (an absurd & abusive amount of) power over the initial import permits.

At least that's the "loophole" that has allowed all other marine mammal exhibits to remain open, even after their capture has been illegal for decades.

Beluga whales are not a threatened species, captive breeding programs are not necessary to maintain the population.

If the goal is to reduce the overall number of cetaceans in captivity, breeding more of them directly goes against that.

> More than two years after the initial request was made, five beluga whales have left their overcrowded home at Marineland, an amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and arrived at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. The move came about a month after Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) quietly approved the controversial permit for the whales’ export.

so was it just a sale?

Aside from the actual content: before being able to read a single word, two different pop-up boxes appear telling me there is more content to read and that I should subscribe for more. Does this really work? Do they get increast readership by doing this?

No, most people are turned away. But they're not measured. What is measured by some marketing expert is that he gets a nonzero number of sign-ups tracked by this box the more often he shows it. That readership and revenue is directly attributed to him, conversely, readership for interesting articles and unobtrusive presentation is hard to quantify.

No, it rarely works but FOMO is the worst with marketing people. Have been doing it 10 years now and I still refused to accept pop-ups as anything useful.

Install uBlock Origin.

For some reason I was expecting to read how belugas were catapulted over borders.

In any case they could've used a trebuchet, the superior siege engine.