Two beluga whales tragically died on Wednesday, just weeks after being rescued from an abandoned Canada theme park. The two whales met their fateful end at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium after another whale that came from the same marine park already died away last week, ABC7 reported. A statement the Shedd Aquarium sent to the Daily Mail read: 'Two beluga whales at Shedd Aquarium passed away despite immediate efforts by animal care and veterinary teams to provide lifesaving measures. 'These losses are hard, made more difficult by the fact that it will take time to get concrete answers about what led to their passings. Necropsies, blood tests, and additional exams are underway to help better understand what happened. 'Rain, a 20-year-old female rescued beluga, arrived at Shedd in mid-August as part of the recent international rescue effort. Beethoven, a 34-year-old male, was part of Shedd's resident beluga pod. At this time, it's impossible to know if these passings are isolated or related.' The final group of rescued beluga whales arrived at the Shedd Aquarium on Tuesday as part of a larger international rescue effort.

Since July, several beluga whales have been rescued from a non-operational Canadian Marineland after officials threatened to euthanize them. Marineland, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, has been closed to the public for two years, and in 2025 officials threatened to end the lives of 30 beluga whales who remained in the park. After years of campaigning, a mission kick-started by the charity TideBreakers in the US two years ago focused on moving the animals to new homes. At the beginning of the rescue efforts, TideBreakers co-founder, Marketa Schusterova, said: 'It's a milestone - we've been trying to do this for a decade.'

'The TideBreakers team has monitored Marineland Canada, documenting conditions, exposing animal deaths, and advocating for improved welfare for every animal held at the facility,' she added. In July, Schusterova warned that despite their positive view on the rescue efforts, 'there are currently no operational sea sanctuaries for beluga whales anywhere in the world capable of receiving these animals immediately.' 'As a result, relocation to another captive facility is presently the only realistic short-term option to improve the welfare of animals living in deteriorating conditions while long-term sanctuary solutions continue to be developed,' she said at the time. An animal care team in Chicago had observed all nine rescued whales around the clock, ABC7 reported. Other whales are going to facilities in Atlanta, San Antonio, San Diego and Spain.

The Daily Mail contacted the Shedd Aquarium and TideBreakers for comment. moving 30 animals is a complex undertaking because of the conditions the animals were kept in for years, some of the on antibiotics animals should have been assessed indibidually and for public transport very early on to speculate would like to see transparency could be physical or pyschological stress, fast relocation, introduction to unfamiliar social group shocked that this move happened so fast surprised that all of them for trsnport within a month hoping all animals in shedd are going to be evaluated to see if they are in a good health condition so far alarming that shedd is the one that has three dead animals within a week difficult, endanger local wild population, they would not adapt, releasing and rehabilitation is almost nearly