Beluga whale sisters "Little White" and "Little Gray" have safely arrived in Iceland. The whales took a 9,000-kilometer journey from their previous home in Shanghai to their new home — a specially-built open-sea sanctuary located in Iceland's Westman Islands.

The 24-hour transfer involved stretchers and specially-built transportation tanks. They were transported by a truck, a chartered flight and then a ferry. The whales were assessed in a care pool before being released into the sanctuary.

The sanctuary is the first of its kind, and is as close to living in the wild as possible for the animals, which were raised in captivity and kept in concrete pools. Conservationists hope it will become a model for relocating 3,000 of the creatures in captivity.

The whales are 12 years old. Originally from the Russian Arctic waters, they were thought to be two or three years old when captured.

(Cover image provided by Merlin Entertainments. )

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