‘We need to get them out’: Beluga trainer fired by Marineland speaks out

A fired beluga trainer says Marineland’s crumbling infrastructure, understaffing and lack of resources have created dangerous conditions for its belugas and they should be relocated immediately.

Christy Burgess, who worked at Ontario’s Niagara Falls park when a young beluga was killed in February, said Marineland’s threat to euthanize all 30 of its remaining belugas if emergency funding is not found is a “repulsive” tactic that uses the whales as leverage.

“We need to get them out,” Burgess said of the last captive whales in Canada. “Immediately.”

Burgess is speaking out for the first time about her experience at Marineland as the whales she loved now face possible death.

Nineteen belugas, one dolphin and one killer whale have died in the park since 2019, according to a database maintained by The Canadian Press based on internal documents and official statements.

Burgess said the pools at Belugas, Arctic Cove and Friendship Cove are in desperate need of repair because their painted walls are peeling and chunks of concrete are falling into the water.

“The whales came up with paint chips on their tongues,” he said. “The ponds are breaking.”

Rocks that are a decorative feature of the pool have broken up and fallen into the tanks, which has provided some excitement to the whales as they like to play with them or try to eat them, he said.

“We’ve seen people have to dive into the water and pull out really large, heavy rocks, probably the size of dinner plates,” Burgess said.

The water system routinely breaks down, affecting the park’s ability to pump and pump water, which is critical to providing medical treatment to whales, Burgess said. This, he said, could mean delays in treating the whales or taking on additional risks by having to go into deeper waters for care by trainers.

Marineland did not respond to requests for comment.

Marineland did not respond to multiple requests for comment with detailed questions about Burgess’s allegations.

The park, once a tourist attraction, is now in trouble after the federal government has refused to grant export permits for 30 of its belugas to be taken to China’s giant aquarium Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. The park said it is almost broke and has no other viable options for relocating the whales.

Fisheries Minister Joan Thompson said she rejected the export request because she did not want to keep belugas in captivity in the future, which is in line with a federal law passed in 2019.

Marineland then wrote to the minister asking for emergency funding to feed and care for the whales, saying it was running out of money and would otherwise have to euthanize them.

Burgess said she wants Thompson to reconsider his decision. He believes the minister is detached from the reality of the situation.

“The minister and everyone keep saying, ‘Well, if they go to China, they might not succeed,’ or that they’re going to exhibit or breed, but the reality is I would like to see them try and (if) they don’t succeed and pass, then OK, but at least they tried,” she said.

“How is leaving them in Marineland a better plan? They’ll either die slowly there or be euthanized because someone wants to make money off the land they’re sitting on.”

Thompson’s office said the minister had made it clear that the decision to deny the export permit was made in line with the law and “with the best interests of the belugas in mind.”

Thompson has urged Marineland to come up with a new plan and said it will quickly consider any proposal.

Marineland founder John Hollar died in 2018 and his wife, Mary, continued to run the park until her death in 2024. The property is held in a trust.

The animals have been a hindrance to the sale of the park, even though the vast property is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps even more.

Marineland has become a political issue, with the federal and provincial governments pointing fingers at each other to help the belugas. Premier Doug Ford said Ottawa caused the disturbance, while Thompson said the health and welfare of the whales is within provincial purview.

The province is responsible for enforcing animal welfare laws.

Ontario is responsible for enforcing animal welfare laws and has conducted extensive investigations into Marineland since 2020. Inspectors have visited the park more than 220 times and issued 33 orders for compliance.

Water at the park has been an issue for a long time.

The province has four long-term outstanding orders against Marineland. The Ministry of the Solicitor General has said that they are focusing on water quality, maintenance and repair of water systems, proper record keeping for whales and dolphins, and the condition of enclosures and enrichment levels for dolphins, seals and sea lions.

In 2021, the province declared all marine mammals in Marineland endangered, citing poor water quality. Marineland disagreed, filed an appeal against the order, but then dropped its appeal.

Marineland has been quiet in recent days as the deadline for its funding request came and went last week. The province confirmed Thursday that the whales were still alive but provided no other details.

Until recently, Burgess was a lifelong Marineland fan. She remembers visiting the park when she was seven years old and being mesmerized by it. When she was 15, she took a job for two summers at the Hungry Bear, the park’s main restaurant.

She applied for other jobs at Marineland and eventually got the job in 2022. She started out as a whale caretaker, which involved preparing food for frozen fish. Herring, capelin and smelt form the core of the belugas’ diet.

Burgess was soon promoted to assistant marine mammal caretaker. Then she became a beluga trainer.

Over time, Burgess’s workload increased. She said the park was understaffed when she worked there and had 18 employees to cover both beluga pools. The whales require daily care, he said, so breaks, different shifts, time off and illness mean it can take five to seven people to care for the animals.

“It’s not even close to enough,” she said.

During her three years at Marineland, seven belugas and the park’s lone killer whale, Kiska, died.

Burgess said the deaths have taken a heavy toll on Marineland’s trainers and caretakers, who work long, hard hours in all weather year-round.

He said, “They’re tired, they’re carrying the burden of all the trauma they’ve seen over the years and they’re very thin, but they’re still looking and performing their best.” “And they get money.”

Burgess said that as a full-time trainer she was paid $18.50 an hour, which was more than the $17.50 she earned as a caregiver. Some of the more senior trainers make more than $20 an hour, he said.

She wants the public to know more about the belugas remaining at Marineland.

Xena is the matriarch and Xavier is the nerd of the pod

There’s Xena, the pod’s matriarch.

“His age doesn’t slow him down,” Burgess wrote in a Facebook post with brief information about each whale. Jenna is the mother of two Park-born children: Eve, a more reserved beluga who vocalizes and “laughs,” and Javier, the pod’s “idiot” who is “highly intelligent and loves to play with studs,” Burgess wrote.

Some belugas are more dominant and others are more docile, he explained.

“They are very sweet, they show affection and form very close social bonds with each other,” she said.

Part of the 2019 law that bans captivity has had a detrimental impact on whales, he said. Ottawa prohibits breeding, so Marineland had to separate males and females because beluga birth control does not otherwise exist.

This has caused problems when beluga families become separated.

“Males, when they get hormonal, they become really aggressive toward each other,” Burgess said, citing the example of whales’ “raking” — scratching their teeth on other belugas that cause permanent wounds.

“There has been a huge amount of looting,” he said.

“The females are very timid and nervous, whereas before, when males were present, they were much more confident.”

Marineland’s threat to cull all the whales hit the park like a bomb, Burgess said, because he is still close to many of the workers there.

But he said this is not a credible threat.

“It’s disgusting, but veterinarians won’t do it, caregivers won’t do it,” she said.

Mass euthanasia is ‘madness’, says former trainer

Mass euthanasia is “madness”, he said, and even if staff were willing to do it, it would take several days. Euthanasia is difficult for workers, he said, even when it’s necessary — like in February.

Eos, a seven-year-old juvenile beluga, was struggling at the time. The whale had been sick since birth and euthanizing him was the right decision, Burgess said.

Burgess had formed a deep bond with Eos, as she became one of his caregivers over the past year. Eos struggled to eat, so Burgess spent hours trying different methods of getting food to the whale.

Despite the efforts of the workers, life began to move away from Eos.

“I wanted to be able to see her body so I turned it off because the previous whales, when they passed, I would come to work and they would just go by and you just have to move on,” Burgess said through tears.

She didn’t want this to happen to Eos, so she pushed to be a part of the process. “I was able to see her, hug her and say goodbye.”

Burgess said Marineland fired him shortly after The Canadian Press learned of Eos’ death from a source inside the park in early March.

After The Canadian Press referred questions to Marineland, the park confirmed the whale’s death on social media.

But Marineland was angered by the leak and began questioning employees, Burgess said. She said she was fired a few weeks later and initially no reason was given.

Burgess said he was eventually told it was due to Marineland closing its operations, although the park later posted his job at an employment site. Burgess provided a screenshot of the ad but The Canadian Press did not independently view it on the employment site.

She said she believed she was fired because of the leak, even though she was not the source.

He tried for months to get his job back, but Marineland refused.

Now she’s trying to understand the whales’ current plight. She said all levels of government have failed whales in the Marineland and she wanted to make one thing very clear.

“Marineland’s current frustrations are a result of choices, not circumstances,” Burgess said.