Whale of a rescue mission

One of the two beluga whales rescued from Kharkiv, Ukraine, after being transported to an aquarium in Valencia, Spain, after the war in Ukraine significantly affected their chances of survival there. The pair of captive beluga whales were extricated from besieged Kharkiv with help from animal experts around the world. — ©2024 The New York Times Company

IT was a whale of an evacuation. Actually, two.

In what experts said was among the most complex marine mammal rescues ever undertaken, the pair of beluga whales were extricated from an aquarium in the battered city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and transported to Europe’s largest aquarium in Valencia, Spain, last month.