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Court gives WDC go-ahead to support legal case to stop import of beluga whales

Court gives WDC go-ahead to support legal case to stop import of beluga whales

Press Release: WDC Will Defend Federal Denial of Permit to Import 18 Wild-Caught Beluga Whales from Russia Atlanta, Georgia—A federal district court in Georgia last Friday granted a request to intervene filed by the Animal Welfare Institute, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Cetacean Society International, and Earth Island Institute in a lawsuit challenging the National Marine Fisheries…

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A Hard Rock Massage

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…

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Georgia Aquarium is ignoring us!

WDC believes that the Georgia Aquarium is actively blocking messages sent by members of the public questioning the Aquarium’s continued attempts to import wild-caught belugas from Russia for its shows.  As part of its ongoing campaign, WDC asked the public to send messages to the Georgia Aquarium requesting that the Aquarium protect belugas in the wild…

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Beluga Action Alert! It's Better to be Free!

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…

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Georgia Aquarium to fight for permit to import 18 wild beluga whales

The Georgia Aquarium in the US is to seek to overturn a recent US government agency decision preventing the import of 18 wild-caught beluga whales from Russia.   The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the US federal body that oversees the country’s marine resources refused to grant a permit to the aquarium in August that…

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