🔗 Share this article

The beluga known as Jelly Bean’s daughter Bertie Botts is an charming little “ham sandwich”. Orion – nicknamed “Onion Ring” – is a large but very loyal friend. Another whale, Zephyr has “constant motion” and sways like a wiggly creature. Lillooet is the “loving presence” with a kind nature.

Thirty enclosed marine mammals in a Canadian amusement park have been caught in a struggle between a defunct facility, public officials and animal rights activists.

But those working directly with the whales say the intense discussion over their destiny often fails to consider the individual traits of the whales who, after growing up in enclosed habitats, have been carefully observed by the caretakers who see them each day.

After the national authorities blocked the sale of the belugas to a foreign facility, the struggling amusement park near the famous falls where they are housed stated it would consider to euthanize them unless the federal government funds the upkeep of their survival. The nation’s marine resources official has rejected that ultimatum, placing the thirty whales in an dangerously unstable circumstance.

Intelligent Sea Creatures

Researchers say that belugas’ brain structure, along with their sound replication, intellectual tasks and group interactions indicate they are deeply intelligent animals – something Kristy Burgess learned first-hand.

Burgess spent a significant period as a beluga trainer, a position that entailed building relationships of the sea creatures.

“Establishing those connections over time takes a lot of regularity and a lot of affection. At the beginning, they’re very unsure of you,” she said. “In time, you gain shared confidence. And they start being more vulnerable with you. It’s just so wonderful and fulfilling.”

Burgess knew the whales were highly intelligent, but she says she was nevertheless amazed by the subtleties and idiosyncrasies in their characters. She developed a particular love for Eve and Cleopatra with contrasting temperaments.

“Eve chose me. Cleo demanded work,” she said. “Each changed the way I perceive relationships.”

Growing Opposition and Facility Decline

Her relationship with the whales evolved against a backdrop of rising activist criticism to their captivity.

During her time at the facility, multiple belugas and the park’s one orca, the orca, succumbed. In total, nineteen belugas have perished at the park since 2019, a statistic which the facility links to expected lifespan, but which advocates say points to the substandard environment in which they were kept.

The park did not open to the visitors over the recent season, but the former trainer says she witnessed firsthand consequences of the closure. “Structural materials is deteriorating from the enclosures because they’re degrading and not being fixed. The whales are exploratory and so they pick it up and move about with chunks in their jaws. It’s upsetting to see.”

The facility did not respond to a request for comment, but in the past asserted: “The whales … obtain far higher quality veterinary services and 24/7 supervision than any human in the Britain, or anywhere else.”

Fate in Limbo and Proposed Solutions

The former employee was dismissed from the park in early March following the death of a beluga, an sick beluga the park staff had to humanely kill. She said the park suspected information of the death were leaked to the press and she was fired not long after.

The ambiguity over the whales’ future has left Burgess and current and former trainers in despair. She says the park’s warning to end the lives of its whales is a bargaining chip and is a “practically unfeasible” endeavor, adding any plans to euthanize even a individual beluga would require “considerable personnel”, trucks and machinery.

“It cannot happen in hell the employees would ever do it,” she said.

Burgess supports calls for the whales to be transferred right away from the park, with its crumbling tanks and reduced personnel.

In recent months, Canada’s fisheries minister denied a bid to transfer the whales to China.

“Allowing the proposal would have meant a perpetual life in confinement and a reversion to public entertainment,” the official wrote. “As the public, we know that belugas should be in the ocean, not in enclosures for our entertainment. I could not in clear conscience permit an relocation that would prolong the situation these belugas have endured.”

But Burgess said the official’s comments reveal a more general lack of awareness of the circumstances of life for belugas living their whole lives in enclosures.

“The society needs to understand these are whales that have spent their whole lives in enclosed habitats and they will need ongoing assistance for the rest of their years,” she said. “The public just don’t realize that it’s not as simple as saying ‘close it down’.”

Alternative Habitat and Continuing Discussion

As decision makers struggle to find a answer, ideas have surfaced, some of which have minimal feasibility. A suggested plan called for the belugas to be freed into the natural habitat of Canada’s north – where whales are a primary resource of sustenance for Indigenous peoples.

A proposed protected area in the province of eastern Canada, which has received regulatory clearance, has been contentious. The prospective facility, which includes a large area of enclosed sea water, is not yet built. Supporters remain optimistic that it could ultimately represent a long term answer for some of the whales.

But, the former trainer says, among trainers she’s spoken with, there is “skepticism there” about what she said is “only an untested concept” in the whales’ future.

Some experts say the idea of a sanctuary represents a broader global shift away from zoos and aquariums and could represent a feasible approach in the near future.

The project lead, director of the sanctuary project, said the location will mimic the intellectual stimulation and diet the whales get from specialists, albeit in a significantly bigger space. He said after the health of whales is thoroughly evaluated, which could take months|an extended period|