Three Belugas Have Died at the Shedd in Two Weeks

As a follow-up from our post last week, it's sad to say that three beluga whales have died at the Shedd in about two weeks, and two of them died on the same day.

Rain, a 20 year old female who came down from Marineland in Canada in mid August, and Beethoven, a 34 year old male from the Shedd's own resident pod, both died Wednesday. Peekachu, 23, also a Marineland rescue, died about a week before that.

If you have not been following: Marineland shut down, and ten of its belugas were moved here across three trips, the last one on September 1. The Shedd says it will take time to get concrete answers about what led to the deaths, and that it is watching the rest of the pod around the clock.

Not everybody is willing to wait for the answers. Lori Marino of the Whale Sanctuary Project called the three deaths shocking and horrifying.

Here is a video from NBC 5 Chicago on the topic:

Source credit: Reporting from CBS Chicago, NBC 5 Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times.