🔗 Share this article

The beluga known as Jelly Bean’s offspring Bertie is an cute small “playful character”. Orion – called “Onion Ring” – is a large but very loyal companion. Another whale, Zephyr has “endless energy” and wiggles like a wiggly creature. Lillooet is the “loving presence” with a gentle spirit.

Thirty captive beluga whales in a Canada-based entertainment facility have been caught in a disagreement between a closed attraction, local and national governments and welfare campaigners.

But those working directly with the whales say the heated debate over their destiny often overlooks the individual traits of the whales who, after growing up in confinement, have been carefully observed by the caretakers who interact with them daily.

After the national authorities blocked the export of the belugas to a foreign facility, the embattled facility near the famous falls where they are housed threatened to put them down unless the government pays for the upkeep of their care. Canada’s marine resources official has refused that request, placing the thirty whales in an dangerously unstable position.

Highly Cognitive Marine Mammals

Experts say that beluga whales’ brain structure, along with their sound replication, intellectual tasks and group interactions indicate they are deeply intelligent creatures – something Kristy Burgess observed first-hand.

Burgess spent a significant period as a whale caretaker, a role that required gaining confidence of the aquatic animals.

“Establishing those relationships over time takes a lot of regularity and a lot of love. At the outset, they’re very unsure of you,” she said. “Eventually, you gain mutual trust. And they start being more open with you. It’s just so wonderful and gratifying.”

The trainer knew the whales were very smart, but she says she was even so surprised by the nuances and quirks in their dispositions. She formed a special affection for two female belugas with contrasting personalities.

“Eve selected me. Cleo required effort,” she said. “They changed the way I view relationships.”

Public Concerns and Deteriorating Conditions

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

During her three years at the facility, multiple belugas and the park’s single killer whale, Kiska, succumbed. In all, nineteen belugas have died at the park since recent years, a number which the facility links to age-related causes, but which activists say reflects the substandard environment in which they were housed.

The park did not operate to the public over the summer, but the former trainer says she observed directly consequences of the closure. “Concrete is falling apart from the tanks because they’re degrading and not being maintained. The whales are exploratory and so they take pieces and swim around with fragments in their mouth. It’s distressing to see.”

The park did not reply to a inquiry, but earlier claimed: “The whales … get far better medical attention and 24/7 supervision than any human in the Britain, or other places.”

Uncertain Future and Potential Resolutions

The former employee was fired from the facility in the spring following the passing of a beluga, an unwell beluga the park staff had to humanely kill. She said the park believed information of the incident were disclosed to the news outlets and she was fired soon after.

The uncertainty over the whales’ fate has left Burgess and other caretakers in despair. She says the park’s ultimatum to euthanize its whales is a leverage tool and is a “logistically impossible” task, adding any plans to put down even a single beluga would require “significant manpower”, equipment and machinery.

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

She advocates for demands for the whales to be taken immediately from the park, with its crumbling tanks and shrinking team.

In recent months, the nation’s government official denied a request to transfer the whales to China.

“Allowing the request would have meant a continued life in captivity and a return to public entertainment,” the official commented. “As society, we know that marine mammals should be in the wild, not in pools for our entertainment. I could not in clear conscience approve an relocation that would prolong the conditions these belugas have suffered.”

But the former trainer said the minister’s remarks indicate a wider misunderstanding of the circumstances of existence for belugas living their whole lives in enclosures.

“The public needs to realize these are whales that have lived entirely in enclosed habitats and they will need ongoing assistance for the foreseeable future,” she said. “People just don’t understand that it’s not as easy as saying ‘end operations’.”

Sanctuary Proposal and Continuing Discussion

As decision makers attempt to find a resolution, suggestions have emerged, some of which have questionable practicality. A suggested plan called for the belugas to be freed into the open waters of Canada’s north – where whales are a key source of sustenance for Indigenous peoples.

A planned refuge in the province of eastern Canada, which has received regulatory clearance, has been most controversial. The planned site, which includes a large area of protected cove, is not yet built. Supporters remain hopeful that it could in time represent a long term answer for some of the whales.

But, the former trainer says, among caretakers she’s consulted, there is “no trust there” about what she said is “simply an untested concept” in the whales’ well-being.

Some experts say the possibility of a sanctuary indicates a broader global shift away from captive facilities and could represent a viable approach in the near future.

The project lead, head of the plan, said the facility will replicate the intellectual stimulation and feeding regimen the whales get from specialists, albeit in a much larger space. He said after the medical condition of whales is fully assessed, which could take months|an extended period|