I remember the first time I saw belugas - it was on Turnagain Arm just outside Anchorage, Alaska. They appeared all at once, a ghostly greyish-white that almost seemed transparent. There were so many I couldn't count them, just splashing for joy in the water. Then all at once, they disappeared. I think I may have seen one or two on other occasions, but nothing so memorable as this one apparition.

I see we don't have that song posted. I have mixed feelings about Raffi songs - I tend to find them annoying - but I sing them because they seem to please preschool kids, and I don't have a lot of preschool songs. And I have to admit that the song came to mind the moment I saw all those belugas in Alaska.

BABY BELUGA
(Raffi & D. Pike, 1980)

Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea,
Swim so wild and you swim so free.
Heaven above and the sea below,
And a little white whale on the go.

     Baby Beluga, Baby Beluga,
     Is the water warm, is your mama home
     With you so happy?

Way down yonder where the dolphins play,
Where you dive and splash all day;
Waves roll in and the waves roll out,
See the water squirting out of your spout.

     Baby Beluga, oh Baby Beluga,
     Sing your little song, sing for all your friends
     We like to hear you.

When it's dark, you're home and fed,
Curl up snug in your water bed;
The moon is shining and the stars are out,
Good night, little whale, good night.

     Baby Beluga, Baby Beluga,
     With tomorrow's sun, another day's begun,
     You'll soon be waking.

Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea,
Swim so wild and you swim so free.
Heaven above and the sea below,
And a little white whale on the go.
You're just a little white whale on the go.


from the Rise Up Singing Songbook, page 166. Compared and verified with the Raffi recording.

There's a great article on belugas in Wikipedia.