During a family vacation along the St. Lawrence River in Canada, a heartwarming rescue unfolded when a young baby beluga whale washed up on the riverbank. The whale was just a few hours old, still with its umbilical cord attached. With no sign of the baby’s mother nearby, the family, led by 15-year-old Nicholas Milliard and his younger siblings, jumped to save the vulnerable creature.
Nicholas explained how they immediately started keeping the baby beluga hydrated. They dug a hole in the sand to collect water for the whale and constantly moistened her skin. It was a challenging task, as the water level kept dropping, forcing the boys to refill the hole with buckets of water every five minutes.
Thanks to the children’s quick thinking and care, they could keep the baby beluga alive until professional help arrived. Later in the day, a rescue team from the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM) arrived to assist in the rescue effort. In hopes of finding a lactating whale to care for the newborn, the researchers exposed the baby to several pods of beluga whales.
As night fell, the rescuers had to leave the baby in her native waters. To monitor her progress, they took a skin sample. Though the newborn faced an uphill battle to survive, the rescuers knew her best chance was to be reunited with her mother or find another nursing whale. Beluga whale calves rely on their mothers for up to two years for nursing and protection, making it impossible for this baby to survive independently.
The rescuers handled the whale carefully, placing her on a mattress to keep her comfortable during transport back to the water. While her future remains uncertain, the team remains hopeful that the social nature of beluga whales will lead her to a pod where she can find nourishment and safety.
Once abundant in the St. Lawrence River, beluga whale populations have dwindled to just 900 individuals due to pollution and other environmental threats. The survival of every whale, especially a newborn, is crucial to the species’ future. As Tim Binder, Vice President of Animal Care, stressed, “Each individual is vital to the survival of the group.”
Thanks to the heroic efforts of Nicholas, his siblings, and the rescue team, this baby beluga was given a fighting chance to survive. Their compassion and quick actions made all the difference in offering the little whale hope for a future in the wild.
