WSBTV 30 Nov 07;
ATLANTA -- Marina, the second oldest beluga whale at the Georgia Aquarium, has recently fallen ill and is being watched twenty-four hours a day. Marina has lost her appetite and has become disoriented.
“Every resource is being given to the team to ensure that Marina is receiving the best possible care,” said Jeff Swanagan, president and executive director, Georgia Aquarium.
“She has a variety of ailments being treated, but her lost sense of direction is the primary concern of the veterinary and husbandry team treating her. Without regaining her ability to navigate, she will not be able to survive in any environment.”
She has already suffered an injury to her rostrum (chin). More than 100 staff will be involved in covering shifts to ensure Marina’s safety, according to aquarium officials. Veterinary and husbandry teams are continuing diagnostic procedures to further understand her condition. Marina, estimated to be 25 years old, is currently being cared for off-exhibit.
In November 2005, three beluga whales, including Marina, were transferred to the Georgia Aquarium on a breeding loan. The Georgia Aquarium team is collaborating with veterinarians from the University of Georgia and the University of Florida.
The three other beluga whales at the Georgia Aquarium, Nico, Maris and Natasha, are all eating normally and responding to the husbandry team.
Officials said an update on Marina will be released Monday afternoon or sooner if her condition changes.
Gasper, one of the Georgia Aquarium's five beluga whales at the time, was euthanized in January after months of declining health.
Whale sharks Ralph and North also died at the Aquarium this year.
Aquarium fights to save ill whale
Mark Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 30 Nov 07;
A beluga whale at the Georgia Aquarium is not well and has been taken off exhibit, officials said Friday.
Marina, a 25-year-old female, has stopped eating and has been swimming erratically since before Thanksgiving, the aquarium said. She also has ulcers and a bump on her snout, and is on 24-hour care, employees said.
The announcement highlights the death earlier this year of Gasper, a popular, bubble-blowing beluga who contracted an incurable disease. The two cases are not related, aquarium officials say.
Marina is the second-oldest whale in the exhibit; Natasha, 28, is oldest. Belugas may live to 35 or older in the wild.
Veterinarians aren't sure what caused Marina to stop eating or swimming like her three tank mates in the Arctic Quest exhibit, said Jeff Swanagan, the aquarium's president and executive director. Nor do they know how serious the 1,570 pound whale's afflictions may be.
"Animals are so good at hiding their symptoms," he said.
Marina's symptoms prompted the aquarium to begin a ceaseless watch Thursday afternoon, when veterinarians placed her in a separate tank adjacent to the beluga exhibit. The aquarium lowered the water and placed 14 people in wet suits in the pool's 55-degree shallows.
Since then, more than 100 people have taken four-hour turns helping the Delphinapterus leucas swim in a tight circle, keeping her away from the pool's edges. Swanagan called it "an incredible effort."
The care will continue for as long as it takes for the whale to improve, he said. The aquarium has also called experts from the Universities of Georgia and Florida to help assess Marina's condition.
That condition, he said, first became apparent just before Thanksgiving when her swimming no longer mirrored the graceful loops and dives of Nico, Maris and Natasha, the other belugas in Arctic Explorer. The aquarium took her off the exhibit, but periodically let her rejoin the others. They quarantined her after she turned sideways and banged her rostrum, or snout, on a rock.
The whale's symptoms don't appear encouraging, said Lori Marino, an Emory University neuroscience lecturer who is a specialist in whales, dolphins and porpoises.
"Those are two cardinal things: off-feed and not swimming well," she said. "That's bad."
Marina, Maris and Natasha came to Georgia in November 2005 in the hope they would breed with males Nico and Gasper. They are on a breeding loan from the Wildlife Conservation Society's New York Aquarium.
Since then, Nico has expressed interest in the females, especially Maris, 13 and the youngest of the trio. He's frequently mated with her this year.
Gasper wasn't as fortunate. The aquarium euthanized him in January after determining he would not recover from a bone disease he contracted at another exhibit. Marina's woes, Swanagan said, "are a totally different situation."
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