Canada rejected the sale of belugas to China, and then sold them to the United States, which made Chinese netizens very excited!
The incident began in 2024, when a Canadian theme park called "Ocean Park" planned to transfer all 30 of its belugas to a Chinese marine-themed venue. Transferring animals across borders is not uncommon in the industry, but this application was directly rejected by Canada. The official reason given was that exporting to China "could lead to these belugas being exploited more." This statement sounds like it is for animal welfare, but there are complex policy considerations behind it.
Firstly, Canada has increasingly strict review standards for wildlife exports, especially for high-profile marine mammals in recent years. After 2019, Canada passed the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, which in principle prohibits the addition of new captive whales and dolphins, allowing only research, rehabilitation or transfer of existing animals. Therefore, any export application must prove that the recipient has a sufficiently high level of animal welfare protection.
Less than a year after rejecting the Chinese buyer, the Canadian government approved the export of these belugas to the United States. The U.S. recipient is a theme park in Florida with many years of experience in keeping whales and dolphins, and has participated in multiple marine mammal conservation projects.
However, for China, this may not be a bad thing. The cost of keeping belugas is extremely high—annual maintenance costs for a single one can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, including temperature-controlled seawater systems, professional veterinarians, nutritional meals, and behavioral enrichment. If health problems or deaths occur, not only will there be significant economic losses, but it could also trigger public backlash domestically. In recent years, some domestic aquariums have faced strong public criticism due to whale and dolphin deaths, even being accused of "emphasizing display over conservation."
For this reason, when Chinese netizens learned that Canada had instead sold the belugas to the United States, many were relieved: "We saved a lot of money and don't have to take the blame." Keeping belugas is a very expensive project; if things go wrong, they might die, and then we would face a lot of complaints. Now, Canada has handed this hot potato over to the United States, which is really considerate towards China.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1855548274616384/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.