FILE - This photo provided by the Georgia Aquarium shows members of the Georgia Aquarium animal care staff assisting a beluga whale as she bonds with her newborn calf that was born on May 18, 2012, at the aquarium in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Georgia Aquarium, file)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the whales would be housed in aquariums and zoological parks around the country.
The application is part of a three-year, multimillion-dollar conservation program meant to improve the genetic diversity of belugas in captivity in the U.S. That would, in turn, make the beluga population more stable and would broaden the database of research on belugas' needs and capabilities.
Georgia Aquarium chief zoological officer William Hurley says there are 34 belugas in captivity in the U.S. He said many of them are past calf-bearing age, and bringing more belugas into the pool could improve the success of breeding efforts.
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