One of the most crucial parts of pulling off an unprecedented international plane ride for four beluga whales is making sure they don’t even realize that they’re on a trip. “The goal is that they notice as little as possible,” says Karina Tang, the lead veterinarian and vice president of animal health at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.Tang and Charlie Jacobsma, the Shedd’s director of animal behavior and training, both accompanied beluga whales Acadia, Lillooet, Osiris, and Sierra on the journey from their Niagara Falls enclosures to Toronto’s Pearson Airport to Chicago. Two additional belugas joined the flight on a chartered Boeing 777 freighter, but were then transported to an aquarium in San Antonio.The whales were living in Marineland of Niagara Falls, a notorious, longrunning aquarium and amusement park that went bankrupt after the death of its owners and closed to the public in 2024. As it ran out of money to care for the animals, the park had previously implored the Canadian government for assistance. In 2025, Marineland announced that it had made the “devastating decision” to consider euthanasia if it could not relocate the animals.Workers at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium use a sling to move a beluga whale.