‘Devastating grief’: Georgia Aquarium mourns death of beluga whale calf

“The people that care for our animals are in pain,” the Georgia Aquarium posted on Facebook as it announced the death of a beluga whale calf.

“There are no words for the devastating grief we feel. After observing a lack of natural progress in her labor, Qinu, a beluga whale, needed manual assistance to deliver her calf. Even with extraordinary life-saving measures by the animal health and care teams, the calf did not survive. Our attention remains focused on Qinu as we monitor her recovery,” the Facebook post reads.

This isn’t the first calf 13-year-old Qinu has lost. In 2017, she also experienced complications during delivery, and the offspring did not survive. That was her first pregnancy.

Just last week the aquarium posted video on Facebook showing Qibu’s calf moving around inside her.

The death is the latest in a series of losses for the downtown attraction, Bo Emerson wrote then.

Two other newborn belugas have died at the aquarium, one in May 2012, the other in June 2015, both of them offspring of the facility’s beluga matriarch, Maris. Then Maris herself died in October of 2015 of heart failure at age 21.