BEC on talent hunt for Dubai parks

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It can take around four years to train people to work with killer whales. (Getty Images)

Busch Entertainment Corporation (BEC) revealed it would need to start to identify people to work on its four attractions planned for Palm, Jebel Ali, four years prior to opening because the market is so niche.

BEC president and chief operating officer Jim Atchison said: "We're identifying people who would come here to be killer whale trainers because that's a job that takes years to train for, so the park will be open in four years and we're figuring out right now who will be the trainers here.

"Other jobs require a little less lead time but all of them have been programmed out and we will be recruiting and hiring and training all the way through," he said.

In terms of how BEC would be recruiting for positions across the four parks - SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Aquatica and Discovery Cove - Atchison added: "The destination [The Palm, Jebel Ali] needs thousands of staff, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands even, so the good news is we're not the only ones in the boat.

"Obviously through our relationships with Nakheel and others in the industry we'll probably rely on many of the same resources that the rest of the destination will in terms of having terrific opportunities for anybody regional and local as well as recruiting from distant lands for people to work here too," he said.

BEC is also already working on developing its collection of marine mammals and other animals for the Dubai attractions.

BEC's Rob Yordi, project director - zoological operations, Dubai development team, said a priority would be to focus on developing the best possible environment for the animals.

"One of the things we're really excited about is partnering with Nakheel and its Blue Communities Group," he revealed.

"We're going to be using natural sea water in a lot of our exhibits so we've got to make sure we are filtering that correctly and taking care of it and managing the whole water system for all four parks on Palm Jebel Ali," explained Yordi.

He added that it would also be vital to ensure the animal collections would be self-sustaining.

"All of the breeding programmes with our marine mammals are extremely successful; we have fourth generation dolphins, third generation killer whales, so all the animals that will be coming from the US will be animals that were born there," said Yordi.

"As we look at the collection coming over here, we want to make sure that it is also self sustaining and that we will have breeding successes out here, so the new generation of habitats will be designed to keep the animals as healthy as possible, as active as possible, and be very conducive and comfortable for a long life and to reproduce," he said.

Of the region-specific challenges Yordi added: "We'll have different environmental situations to face, whether we have sandstorms, different temperatures etc, but those can all be overcome with all the expertise BEC has".

BEC currently has 450 animal experts and 55,000 animals in its portfolio.

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