We learned last week that beluga whales are the true white whales, except when they’re babies, but they also aren’t always white as adults!  In spring and summer, when belugas start gathering in estuaries and shallow-water areas, they actually have a yellowish tint to their skin.  Belugas undergo a seasonal molt, meaning that one layer of…

Belugas in the wild are a truly cosmopolitan species – they inhabit a wide variety of areas in the Arctic, from the deep ocean to coastal waters and estuaries.  They often visit shallow river mouths and are known to swim up rivers in search of food, and have also been found diving in deep submarine…

It has been said that perception is reality, and that the way we look at the world often depends on where we stand. On Monday, September 30th, the Georgia Aquarium filed a complaint in district court in Atlanta seeking judicial review of NMFS’ recent decision to deny the Aquarium’s request to import 18 wild-captured belugas…

Kenneth Brower writes an interesting piece on the Georgia Aqaurium’s attempt to import wild caught beluga, reversing 20 years of an defacto moratorium on imports of wild-caught marine mammals into the USA. Brower notes “If the agency  [NMFS] is to issue a permit for the 18 belugas, it will have to depend on similar assertions…