Three-year-old beluga dies at Vancouver Aquarium

VANCOUVER – One of the Vancouver Aquarium’s beluga whales, Tiqa, which was born June 10, 2008, died early Friday morning at approximately 5:45 a.m.

The body of Tiqa has been transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Health Care Centre where a full necropsy is being performed by Aquarium veterinarian Dr. Martin Haulena and Ministry of Agriculture veterinary pathologist Dr. Stephen Raverty, according to a news release.

According to police, there was break-in overnight at the aquarium. It’s not yet clear if there’s any connection between the death of Tiqa and the break-in.

Qila gave birth to Tiqa on June 10, 2008.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Get Started

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Qila, was born at the Vancouver Aquarium in 1995.

IN 2008, the aquarium drew 5,500 entries for its name-the-whale contest, and whittled them down to a short list of five.

In final voting by 871 members of the aquarium, 399 or 46 per cent opted for Tiqa.

The winning moniker carries on the family name. Tiqa is derived from the weekday she was born, Tuesday, and the names of her father, Imaq, mother, Qila, and grandmother Aurora.

“It was a runaway winner. It was clearly in the lead from the start,” said Vancouver Aquarium spokesman Kent Hurl. Tiqa beat out — in order — Mira, Kuvia, Shiya and Sura.

The Vancouver Sun gathered potential baby beluga names from its readers, the aquarium narrowed them down to the short list and its members had the final say.

Hurl said while the name doesn’t directly follow the tradition of choosing beluga names from an Arctic language, using the baby’s relatives’ names as the foundation for the acronym make up for it.

Hurl said the aquarium received three entries for Tiqa, but West Vancouver’s Christine McDonald won the naming contest in a separate draw.

“I like keeping things in the family,” said a happy McDonald, who worked with her six-year-old daughter Hannah to come up with the name.

“There’s good tradition, there’s good meaning, so we played around with the initials and came up with Tiqa,” she said. “My daughter had a plethora of ideas, but she decided it was the nicer one.”