Environment: Whale of a Child

Brooklyn nurses a baby beluga

At birth it weighed 140 lbs. and measured 5 ft. 3 in. from snout to tail. Name: Nyci (pronounced Nicky), an acronym for "New York City's first." The big, blubbery infant is a beluga whale, and if it survives, it will be the first of these small, white, toothed marine mammals from the icy waters near the Arctic Circle successfully bred and born in captivity.

The birth occurred last month in a 50,000-gal. tank at the New York Aquarium, just off the boardwalk at Brooklyn's Coney Island. Both...