🔗 Share this article

The beluga known as Jelly Bean’s daughter Bertie Botts is an cute small “playful character”. Orion – nicknamed “Onion” – is a large but fiercely protective companion. Zephyr has “endless energy” and sways like a worm. Lillooet the beluga is the “most affectionate” with a gentle spirit.

Thirty enclosed marine mammals in a Canadian amusement park have been entangled in a struggle between a defunct facility, public officials and welfare campaigners.

But those working directly with the whales say the intense debate over their future often fails to consider the individual traits of the whales who, after living their entire lives in enclosed habitats, have been closely studied by the humans who see them each day.

After the national authorities disallowed the transfer of the belugas to China, the struggling amusement park near the famous falls where they are kept warned to end their lives unless the government covers the upkeep of their care. The nation’s marine resources official has rejected that request, placing the thirty whales in an ever more uncertain circumstance.

Intelligent Sea Creatures

Experts say that belugas’ neuroanatomy, along with their sound replication, cognitive challenges and group interactions indicate they are deeply intelligent creatures – something a former trainer discovered first-hand.

She spent several years as a marine mammal specialist, a role that involved earning the trust of the marine predators.

“Building up those relationships over time takes a lot of regularity and a lot of affection. At the start, they’re very cautious of you,” she said. “Eventually, you gain mutual trust. And they start being more trusting with you. It’s just so extraordinary and gratifying.”

The trainer knew the whales were exceptionally cognitive, but she says she was nevertheless surprised by the details and unique traits in their characters. She cultivated a deep bond for a pair of whales with contrasting natures.

“One whale chose me. Cleo required effort,” she said. “Both changed the way I view relationships.”

Public Concerns and Deteriorating Conditions

Burgess’s interaction with the whales evolved against a background of increasing societal concern to their confinement.

During her three years at the park, multiple belugas and the park’s single orca, the orca, died. In all, nineteen belugas have died at the park since 2019, a toll which the facility ascribes to expected lifespan, but which campaigners say indicates the substandard environment in which they were kept.

The facility did not open to the public over the recent season, but the former trainer says she witnessed firsthand consequences of the cessation. “Structural materials is deteriorating from the pools because they’re in disrepair and not being repaired. The whales are curious and so they pick it up and move about with fragments in their jaws. It’s upsetting to see.”

The park did not comment to a questionnaire, but in the past asserted: “The whales … obtain far better medical attention and constant supervision than any human in the United Kingdom, or elsewhere.”

Uncertain Future and Proposed Solutions

The former employee was fired from the park in the spring following the death of Eos, an unwell beluga the employees had to euthanize. She said the park believed particulars of the incident were disclosed to the news outlets and she was fired not long after.

The ambiguity over the whales’ outcome has left her and staff members in anguish. She says the facility’s warning to euthanize its whales is a leverage tool and is a “logistically impossible” undertaking, adding any efforts to euthanize even a individual beluga would require “immense personnel”, equipment and heavy equipment.

“It’s impossible in hell the employees would ever do it,” she said.

Burgess supports requests for the whales to be transferred promptly from the park, with its crumbling tanks and shrinking team.

In recent months, the nation’s government official denied a bid to send the whales to an overseas location.

“Allowing the application would have meant a perpetual situation in confinement and a reversion to public entertainment,” the official wrote. “As society, we know that marine mammals should be in the sea, not in enclosures for our amusement. I could not in ethical standing permit an relocation that would perpetuate the situation these belugas have experienced.”

But Burgess said the minister’s comments indicate a more general misunderstanding of the facts of life for belugas born in captivity.

“The society needs to grasp these are whales that have existed solely in confinement and they will need human care for the remainder of their lives,” she said. “The public just don’t comprehend that it’s not as simple as saying ‘close it down’.”

Alternative Habitat and Continuing Discussion

As officials attempt to find a resolution, proposals have emerged, some of which have minimal feasibility. One proposal called for the belugas to be freed into the open waters of the Arctic – where whales are a key source of sustenance for local populations.

A proposed sanctuary in the region of Nova Scotia, which now received government approval, has shown to be most controversial. The future site, which includes extensive space of protected cove, is not yet built. Proponents remain hopeful that it could in time represent a sustainable resolution for eight of the whales.

But, the former trainer says, among caretakers she’s discussed with, there is “skepticism there” about what she said is “simply an experiment” in the whales’ fate.

Some experts say the prospect of a protected habitat indicates a worldwide trend away from captive facilities and could represent a workable solution in the short term.

An official, head of the plan, said the location will replicate the cognitive activities and nutrition the whales receive from trainers, albeit in a more expansive space. He said after the well-being of whales is fully assessed, which could take months|an extended period|