(Earth Island Institute and our coalition of groups that are active with the NMFS lawsuit have filed a petition to list this population of beluga as "depleted" under provisions of the MMPA. A decision on the petition is still pending. If the population is listed as depleted, the MMPA would prohibit import of any belugas from this area in the future).
(SeaWorld recently announced they would no longer accept any of the beluga whales from the Georgia Aquarium, but were active from the beginning in the requested permit).
There is a pending complaint involving the death of a beluga whale in 1999, but she said the investigation is almost complete and she does not expect there will be any finding that the aquarium committed a violation.
"Any kinds of eggs, blini, any good red or beluga caviar with crème fraîche, cheesecake, chocolate soufflé with whipped cream, crème brûlée, filet mignon, pasta with pesto.
For example, you can buy the United Nations-banned Beluga caviar in any supermarket.
Early on in the 108-mile route we stopped at Beluga Point, where we failed to see any of the whales that purportedly frolic in the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet.
Further analysis identified 33 amino acid sequences that were annotated for Group II C. botulinum strain Eklund 17B (NRP) but where a similar function had not been assigned to any CDS in the type E strains Alaska E43 or Beluga.
Sea World in Texas, which began the only other beluga contact program in the country three years ago, has not had any problems with either the health of the whales or the safety of its guests, according to Chris Bellows, the assistant curator of animal training at Sea World.
The current state of beluga and dolphin breeding programs SeaWorld — and whether the company has any plans to phase them out — is unclear and they did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
