United by Nature: Belugas

Replay & Curated Resources

THANK YOU! We raised $1, 125.00 CAD in donations to support Beluga everywhere!
(through live event, replays, frontline donations)

Heartfelt Gratitude!

Thank you so much for your support of United by Nature: Belugasthe second gathering in The United by Nature series. We’re honoured that 42 people around the world, from Australia, Canada, Greece, Norway, South Africa, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA donated to the event held on November 15, 2025, showing care and support for Belugas everywhere!

More Gratitude!

We are deeply grateful to featured guest Kristen Houser of Fauna Speak for sharing her insights, lived experience, and supportive wisdom.

You’re invited to continue the Cetacean conversation at Fauna Speak’s monthly Whale + Dolphin Circle. December 2025 marks Kristen’s 8th year of hosting the monthly Whale + Dolphin Circle!

Concluding Reflections
from United by Nature: Belugas
11/15/25

As we all now well know, the Beluga are as prolific of coordinators as they are excellent communicators. They didn’t cease in shaping the concluding correspondence of this event as much as they inspired it altogether (around equinox). And to reiterate, this truly is a beginning. An aperture ever-expanding of the opportunity for palpable connection and cooperation amongst our species. And that is the effervescent essence of this event I am carrying forth: dynamic, artful, inspired Beluga collaboration. The subsequent contents of my closing letter will buoy this aspiration.

  • The Belugas will assist one in intuitively navigating these resources and others (this is a growing index; you are welcome to contribute). The scope of everything is as deep as it is far-reaching into every sector imaginable; there is so much we could only touch on. I feel this especially in relation to considering alternatives for the Beluga at Marineland. The sanctuary is not yet constructed and I imagine will not be an appropriate or automatic solution for all of them (considering health, travel capacity, desire, social requirements), nor can it even host all 30 Belugas (current projections are 8-10). There are some other proposed ideas, including one from a real estate developer. All sort of imperfect, patient and costly. But, with the opportunity to connect with the Belugas individually and their wild kin as support, ideally we can work within those circumstances to create best possible outcomes and involve more people than ever for the greater good of these cetacean angels in human care. Positioning Canada as an example to the world, instead of complicit. In my personal heart of connection with the Belugas, I feel this is such an appropriate opportunity for the implementation of IIC (Intuitive Interspecies Communication). And if we can swim into these channels of advocacy with direct desires from the Belugas, it increases the likelihood of success in the interdependent effort of minimizing harm, preserving Beluga priorities within human decision making and potentially rectifying any extra social challenges for them (the Belugas are suggesting the maintaining, reorganizing or reuniting of certain social cohorts, even between facilities). At the very least creating conditions for self-derived striving towards harmony in a captive setting with emphasis on individual well-being, social ease and awareness of their frequencied, spiritual nature. And what they have to purely offer in the post-entertainment era.

  • Specifically how critical enrichment is for Cetacean, cognitive balance (and how costly and time-consuming that can be from a human-economic perspective). That it is deprioritized when resources are scant and even overlooked in some facilities altogether. In these more linear settings (exactly where they are housed), the spiritual nature of Cetaceans isn’t ever mentioned. And in my decades of paying attention to issues of captivity and captive animal advocates, you often hear about the moral turpitude of captivity industries, but rarely, if ever, the sovereign, spiritual nature and the spiritual significance to nature of these animals we have extracted from their ecosystems, families and communities. Like it is disallowed from entering the conversation, even if appreciated in the fringes of those supporting more harmonic, interspecies efforts. Many humans do understand, especially in their hearts, that Belugas are some of earth’s most dynamic, wholesome-frequencied, dimensional beings. And the Belugas at Marineland helped us understand how we can assume some of the responsibility of spiritually enriching their lives. Discovering the myriad of ways we can through the very process of connecting.

    • As mentioned previously, participate in the spiritual enrichment of captive Belugas at Marineland and elsewhere around the world through connection, reciprocal inspiration, parallel challenges, idea generating, etc.; even brief hello’s.

    • The Belugas remind us that governments, “owners,” trainers, veterinarians, even welfare organizations and advocates don’t have all the answers. They encourage us to seek opportunities to share Beluga-initiated ideas and solutions even if more formal collaboration isn’t possible.

    • Recommending IIC (Intuitive Interspecies Communication) be considered an industry standard of care for captive animals. Including considering the unique needs and desires of individuals.

    • They remind us to allow Belugas to care about us like we care about them. That mutual care is evidence of deeper relating.

    • Honor our human initiative to materially problem-solve while remaining buoyant in connection with the patient, purest frequencies of optimum outcome.

    • Continue efforts of cultivating and offering from our unique gifts, and if the opportunity arises: act. As the animals embrace their biological niche, so we must continue to uncover our spiritual and physical service.

    • Through this process and others, we are discovering our personal and aggregate aptitude as generative creators. This pertains to our thoughts, from seeding Beluga-inspired ideas into collective, human consciousness to ensuring we conduct the frequency of optimum outcomes. Realizing how the immaterial informs the material in new and vivid ways.

    • To be wild often implies unconfined, with the freedom to make sovereign selections, even if influenced by circumstances outside one’s perceived control. Beluga examples how we can embody the tenants of wildness even in the center of society. To also be unburdened on the adventure of life, carried by the tides influenced by our heart in greatest service to the whole.

Thank you all so much for attending, contributing energetically and monetarily to the Belugas we all adore. Thank you Christine for curating such an impeccable event; evidence of your devotion. And thank you Beluga, for showing us the way, deeper into our hearts and the future planted inside them.

Thoughtfully,
Kristen

PS - Let’s keep connecting! You can join my mailing list (top left), email faunaspeak@gmail.com if you want to attend the next or any Whale + Dolphin Circle and/or receive 1:1 reflection and guidance from the Cetaceans in an individualized session

PPS - I felt inspired to create an image we could make our lock screen, reminding us to both share and receive with the Belugas. You are also welcome to share this image on social media and any reflections from our gathering. Feel free to screenshot!

Event Replay

Curated Resources

Please note this is not an exhaustive list rather what came up during preparation for this event. Please use your own intuitive discernment and due diligence when exploring these resources. Please take what resonates and let the rest fall away.

Beluga at Marineland

In the News

Latest News (since this event)

Marineland gets ‘conditional approval’ from Ottawa to ship 30 belugas, 4 dolphins to U.S. (CBC, updated January 27, 2026)

Current News (around time of event)

The fate of Marineland’s belugas expose the ethical cracks in Canadian animal law* (The Conversation, October 26, 2025)

Animal lawyers call on Ontario to protect Marineland’s belugas (The Canadian Bar Association, October 15, 2025)

Beluga trainer fired by Marineland speaks out (The Canadian Press, October 14, 2025)

Updates on the Beluga Whales at Marineland Canada (The Whale Sanctuary Project, May 2023 - October 2025)

Historical News

Still-shuttered Marineland puts its amusement park rides up for sale* (CBC, June 20, 2025)

Marineland succeeds in bid to sever property so it can raise money to move animals* (CTV, February 19, 2025)

*With thanks to Marilyn Harris for sharing

Recent Event Replays

Animal Justice
The Future of Marineland’s Whales & Dolphins (online panel)
One of the more recent proposal discussed in this panel: Oasis Sanctuaries
A global vision for inland sanctuaries (including Marineland in Niagara Falls, Canada)

The Whale Sanctuary Project
The Paper they Tried to Suppress
Read peer reviewed study: An update on captive cetacean welfare

Videos

Documentaries

Born to be Free (Netflix) 74 mins
Casting a light on the mistreatment of sea mammals, this documentary follows the plight of 18 Beluga whales kept in captivity for years. (2016 - may not be available for viewing in all regions).

Call of the Baby Beluga (National Geographic) 60 mins
A heart-warming story of the way belugas live their social and communicative lives, and of a stalwart group of scientists who use knowledge and compassion to try to save that endangered baby, her extended family, and the threatened future we all share. (2016).

The Mystery of the Belugas
different running times depending on the format
Amazon Prime Video: The documentary is available as the first episode of the Animal Tales series.
Apple TV: It is also available on Apple TV, listed as Animal Tales Series 4, Episode 1.
Over four seasons, we share the daily life of an international group of scientists who study this extraordinary species in its native habitat to better comprehend their existence and understand why they are endangered. Watch the trailer. (2018).

Sonic Sea (NRDC in partnership with IFAW) 60 mins
This Emmy award–winning, 60-minute documentary is about the devastating impact of industrial and military ocean noise on whales and other marine life. Watch the trailer. (2016).

Collision 1 hour 25 mins
(offers links to watch on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, GooglePlay, YouTube, Vimeo, Vudu)
COLLISION presents how a worldwide increase in shipping traffic is threatening our oceans, its inhabitants and the planet. It focuses on the under-reported issue of fatal ship strikes on whales, a threat which is endangering their very existence. The film not only highlights the issues but also presents clear and available solutions to encourage governments, authorities and global shipping companies to make vital changes. The Ocean Souls Films team partnered with leading scientists, NGO’s and worldwide authorities, ensuring an accurate and scientifically based account of the realities of the harsh impact of marine traffic on ocean life. Watch the trailer. (2023 - may not be available for viewing in all regions).

Cetacean Organisations

Arctic Watch  Beluga  Foundation
Federal Canadian Charity for Arctic Research & Conservation.

Beluga Whale Alliance
Beluga Whale Alliance (BWA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization devoted to supporting the worldwide and local conservation of beluga whales and their Arctic and subarctic habitats through science-focused outreach, education, collaboration, community participation, and research.

Dolphin Project
Dedicated to the Welfare & Protection of Dolphins Worldwide Since Earth Day 1970. Watch the Academy Award® Winning Documentary, THE COVE.

GREMM
A non-profit organization dedicated to scientific research on the whales of the St. Lawrence and education for the sake of marine conservation.

OneWhale
At OneWhale, our mission is to protect Hvaldimir, while we advocate for his future in the wild with other belugas, so that he is no longer lost and alone. Our efforts also include co-founding the Norwegian Whale Reserve, with the vision to free other whales from captivity and provide them a natural safe haven in the arctic.

SEA Life Trust
The SEA LIFE TRUST is a registered charity working globally to protect our world’s oceans and the amazing marine life that lives within them.

Tide Breakers
On a mission to end cetacean captivity.

The Whale Sanctuary Project
Bringing an end to the exploitation of captive whales by creating seaside sanctuaries where they can live in a natural environment.
The Whales Who Are Candidates for the Sanctuary (October 28, 2025)

Whale Guardians
Whale Guardians™ is a league of ports, industry, conservation, & more who are dedicated to preventing unintentional ship strikes on whales. The group works together to implement voluntary routing measures and speed reductions in maritime areas where whales are concentrated, helping to prevent collisions and protect critically endangered whale populations. 

Books

Why Whales Sing,* by Eduardo Mercado (III)
*With thanks to Barbara Shor for recommending this new release

Soul of the Wild: Intimate Messages from the Hearts and Souls of Elephants and Whales, (original edition) by Barbara Shor, DVM

Event Beneficiaries

  • Animal Justice

    Protecting Belugas in Captivity

    Animal Justice is Canada’s only national animal law organisation, dedicated to securing stronger legal protections for animals. They are actively advocating for the Belugas held at Marineland in Niagara Falls, pressing for ethical, legal, and compassionate outcomes for their care and future.

  • Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC)

    Protecting Belugas in the Wild

    Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) is a global charity dedicated to the protection of whales and dolphins worldwide. Their work for Belugas focuses on safeguarding Arctic and sub-Arctic populations from threats such as climate change, shipping, and captivity.

Acknowledgement of Donations

The live event raised $1,055.00 CAD, which, when shared equally between our two beneficiaries, amounted to $527.50 CAD each. The donation to Whale and Dolphin Conservation was converted into British Pounds (GBP). On the day the donation was made $527.50 CAD = £278.00 GBP.

Additional donations of $70.00 CAD were received following the live event which have been shared equally between the beneficiaries. The donation to Whale and Dolphin Conservation was converted into British Pounds (GBP). On the day the donation was made $35.00 CAD = £18.36 GBP.

A total of $1, 125.00 CAD was raised and shared between the two event beneficiaries. Thank you for your support!