To generate money for their care and to offset the cost of shipping them from Canada, a Connecticut aquarium wants to sell off the right to name three of its five newly arrived beluga whales.
The Sea Research Foundation has joined up with Guernsey’s, a New York-based auction house, to host a fundraising auction on Aug. 19 at the Mystic Aquarium, which it owns and runs, according to President and CEO Stephen Coan.
The aquarium is hoping to raise $4 million at the auction, which will include donated art, possibly a boat or vintage car, and some unique experiences, such as educational dive trips with scientists to places like the Atlantic Ocean’s undersea Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, according to Coan.
He estimates that caring for the belugas will cost the aquarium $5 million a year. This includes roughly $250,000 per year for each animal’s food and veterinary care, as well as expenditures involved with maintaining the habitat and conducting research.
Mystic Aquarium, which specializes in whale research, spent months obtaining the necessary permissions from both countries and overcoming opposition from animal rights groups.
All of the whales are acclimating well and are in good condition, according to Coan, but one had to be treated for a pre-existing stomach problem.
He remarked, “They’re beginning to know one other now, so it’s quite a sight.”
Positive reward — a fish, a tongue massage, or a nice item to play with — will quickly begin training the newcomers to willingly help in research. They will serve as a baseline against which wild belugas will be compared while evaluating their health and immune systems.
The names of the other two whales will be chosen by the general public through contests that the aquarium hopes to hold beginning in August, including one that will be part of a state-wide teaching program, according to Coan.