Osiris had begun eating more regularly. After medication, fluids and other support, the 26-year-old beluga was also spending more time interacting with other whales at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. Then, on the morning of September 21, 2026, her breathing and behavior changed. She died despite emergency treatment.
Her death brought the toll among the 30 belugas relocated from Marineland in Ontario to four. Beyond the debate about the future of captive marine mammals, these whales face an immediate problem: getting through a major move while some are already struggling with their health.
As of September 23, the deaths leave 26 survivors across five facilities in the United States and Spain. The number doesn’t describe a shared medical condition. The causes of the four deaths haven’t been publicly established, and the receiving aquariums have reported different levels of concern about the animals in their care.
The relocation involved 30 belugas and four dolphins from the closed Niagara Falls park. Six transports took place over roughly six weeks. Shedd received 10 belugas; SeaWorld’s San Antonio and San Diego facilities received 16 between them; Georgia Aquarium received two; and Oceanogràfic de València received two, along with the dolphins. The institutions announced completion on September 1.
The medical concerns preceded those journeys. In its June 25 authorization letter, NOAA described the whales intended for U.S. facilities as “health-compromised.” It said Marineland couldn’t provide adequate care and reported that Marineland had said it would euthanize the whales without relocation or another intervention. The accompanying agreement required certification that each whale was stable enough to travel.
That requirement wasn’t a declaration that the whales were healthy. It concerned whether they could make the journey. What was known before departure, and what became apparent afterward, are separate parts of the medical history investigators need to examine.
The first death occurred before the relocation effort was finished. Peekachu, a 23-year-old female at Shedd, died on August 25. Blind in one eye, she had nevertheless found her way around the new habitat and socialized with other whales, according to the aquarium. But she wasn’t reliably consuming her full diet. Bloodwork indicated dehydration, and she died while staff were giving her medication and fluids.
On September 2, Shedd announced the death of Rain, a 20-year-old female from Marineland. The same statement announced the loss of Beethoven, a 34-year-old male who had lived at Shedd for decades. Beethoven wasn’t part of the 2026 transfer group, so his death isn’t included in the four relocated belugas. Shedd said the deaths were unexpected and investigations were underway.
In Spain, Jelly Bean had arrived at Oceanogràfic on August 27 with another beluga, Cleopatra, and four dolphins. She also developed feeding problems. The aquarium’s account describes some improvement before an abrupt deterioration. She died on the night of September 17; the announcement followed on September 18.
Osiris died four days later. Shedd said her health had been a concern since her arrival in late July. Although treatment had helped her appetite, the improvement hadn’t resolved the wider uncertainty about her condition.
Feeding problems appear repeatedly in these accounts. They’re important clinical observations, but they don’t establish that every whale died from the same cause. Rain’s announcement, for example, didn’t provide the detailed feeding history disclosed for Peekachu and Osiris.
What the surviving whales can tell us
For a beluga, eating supplies more than energy. Much of the fluid its body needs comes from its food. That makes a decline in appetite a concern for hydration as well as nutrition.
In a September 11 care update, Shedd described tracking the fish each whale accepted, including preferences for Pacific or Atlantic herring and differences in when animals ate most readily. Blood tests in some rescued whales had revealed dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. Those findings helped staff decide when supplemental care was needed.
Getting that information isn’t always straightforward. Shedd’s longtime residents are familiar with medical routines such as presenting a flipper for a blood sample. Newly arrived whales may not yet cooperate in the same way with unfamiliar caregivers. The aquarium says teams have had to balance giving animals time to adjust with obtaining samples needed for treatment.
Secord was one whale receiving particular attention in Shedd’s September 18 update. She wasn’t consistently eating enough, despite staff trying different herring and feeding approaches. The team was also observing how she responded to different habitats. Shedd was considering moving her temporarily into a medical habitat for additional support.
The aquarium had already acknowledged broader difficulties. On September 4, it said of its rescued group: “None are yet where we want them to be from a health standpoint.” That was a dated assessment of the whales at Shedd, not a diagnosis of the entire relocated population.
The phrase “death watch” came from Naomi Rose, a senior marine-mammal scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute, in a CBC interview conducted before Osiris’s death was announced. Rose, who also serves on the Whale Sanctuary Project’s board, warned that more whales could die. It was a warning about risk, not a diagnosis that all 26 survivors were dying.
Other facilities have described a different picture. In September 22 reporting, a SeaWorld spokesperson told the Associated Press that its transferred whales were in “stable health.” Georgia Aquarium had reported reduced appetites in its two arrivals on September 18, but said examinations hadn’t found problems. Oceanogràfic’s September 18 statement said Cleopatra and the four dolphins were progressing favorably. These are the facilities’ assessments at particular times, not guarantees.
The contrast makes individual medical records essential. A common place of origin doesn’t erase differences in age, health history, appetite or response to treatment. Nor does dying after a journey, by itself, establish that the journey caused the death.
Establishing a cause of death requires more than recognizing that an animal was unwell. The investigations need to examine what conditions were present, how they developed and whether transport or acclimation contributed. The available public findings haven’t settled those questions.
Shedd’s September 21 statement said analyses of its earlier deaths were still pending. In Valencia, Oceanogràfic has begun a postmortem investigation with veterinary pathology specialists from CEU Cardenal Herrera University.
The U.S. agreement requires individual health updates every 30 days until the whales’ final status is determined, death notification within 30 days and access to necropsy reports at NOAA’s request. It doesn’t set a 30-day deadline for publishing the findings.
For the living whales, Shedd’s continuing care updates offer details that a survival count alone can’t provide: food intake, breathing, social behavior and the need for medical support. Secord’s next feeding sessions matter because they can help show whether she’s sustaining herself or needs more intervention.
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