PETA Statement: Beluga at SeaWorld San Antonio Follows Her Five Calves to the Grave

For Immediate Release:
February 25, 2026

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Yet another beluga whale—this one torn from her ocean home in 1988 and kept at SeaWorld San Antonio ever since—has died after a lifetime of confinement in a concrete cell. Used as a breeding machine, Martha gave birth to five calves—four of whom died very young, and the fifth, Grayson, was exploited fiercely, shuttled between marine parks and other facilities until he, too, died young at just 16.

Please see the following statement from PETA President Tracy Reiman:

Ripped from her family in the Hudson Bay nearly 40 years ago, Martha spent the rest of her life trapped in a tiny, barren tank in the sweltering Texas heat—forced to give birth to calf after calf only to watch them die or be removed from her. PETA is calling on the public to boycott SeaWorld and for SeaWorld to end its cruel forced breeding program, which sentences whales and dolphins to lives of deprivation and misery, and to send the survivors to seaside sanctuaries before it’s too late.

In nature, belugas roam the icy Arctic, dive thousands of feet, travel dozens of miles a day, play, hunt, and raise their families in close-knit pods. They can live up to 60 years. At SeaWorld, more than 500 whales and dolphins have died—many far short of their natural lifespan—while the survivors circle endlessly in cramped tanks and fend off stressed, aggressive tankmates.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.