Three of five beluga whales imported to Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium from Canada in 2021 have now died. In mid-September of this year, the aquarium was fined $12,200 by the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), as part of a settlement agreement for three alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act. While agreeing to pay the fine, Mystic admitted no wrongdoing.
The settlement focused on the deaths of Havok and Havana; the latest death of Kharabali, in December 2023, was too recent to be involved. APHIS alleged that Havok, who died less than three months after his import, received substandard care. He slammed into a gate, suffering an injury, after staff closed it when a visitor dropped an object into his enclosure. In addition, although Havok was displaying substantial distress behaviors during the eight hours prior to his death, the staff did not call a veterinarian.
Havana died in February 2022. The agreement noted that bacterial counts in her tank, near the end of the previous year, were extraordinarily high (at times, an order of magnitude above the acceptable standard). APHIS concluded that Havana suffered health issues, including stomach discomfort, eye disorders, and skin infections, as a result. According to documents AWI received through a Freedom of Information Act request, the level of oxidants, used to kill bacteria, were also dangerously unstable about six months before this, apparently the result of an equipment malfunction that APHIS felt was not addressed expeditiously.
AWI also reviewed the inspection and necropsy reports for Kharabali. According to a January 2024 inspection report, Kharabali’s medical records describe a number of injuries that were not noted during her December necropsy. All injuries, healed or not, should be noted during a necropsy.
This discrepancy is an issue for three reasons. First, zoo necropsies tend to be conducted by facility-approved, rather than independent, veterinarians. This is a conflict of interest. Second, these injuries seemed to be the result of Kharabali ramming the walls of her tank (several times, this contact was described as “hard”), fracturing her jawbones. APHIS noted that this behavior was a “possible indicator of pain and/or distress.” Mystic did not record any thoughts on why she was displaying this behavior, and protective measures used by staff were ineffective.
There is typically little incentive for a veterinarian to omit information during a necropsy that is already in the animal’s medical records, as both are under the purview of APHIS and open to agency inspection. In addition, while inspection reports are publicly available, they can be difficult to access, while necropsy reports for most captive marine mammals are not available to the public at all. In this case, however, the Marine Mammal Protection Act import permit for these belugas requires necropsy reports to be submitted to the National Marine Fisheries Service, and that agency does make them readily accessible. Arguably, therefore, Mystic did have an incentive to omit details in Kharabali’s necropsy report that painted the facility in a poor light.
We urge APHIS to investigate Kharabali’s death with the same rigor it brought to the deaths of Havok and Havana.