Marineland, Europe’s largest marine park, has closed its doors, in part because of new French law banning shows featuring killer whales and dolphins. It’s not good news for the 4,000 animals that lived in the park — especially for Wikie and her son Keijo, two orcas who are now looking for a new home.
This Sunday, at the end of the Christmas holidays, the last show of the park was held, putting an end to more than half a century of activity at the park, which opened in 1970 and is located in the tourist resort town of Antibes, on the Côte d’Azur.
The French law of 2021 that prohibits, from 2026, shows with cetaceansand the progressive reduction in the number of spectators, which in the last 10 years went from 1.2 million annually to 425 thousand, led management to consider closing.
The park recalled, in a December statement announcing the closure, that 90% of visitors attend shows with orcas and dolphinsso the new legislation “imposes closure” do Marineland.
“These shows are not natural“, said this Sunday the French Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnés Pannier-Runacherat . “The public has evolved in its view of this type of show with animals… which are not natural.”
“It is a trend that is emerging at an international level”, added the minister, highlighting that her office is studying, together with the park management, the possible options for the two orcas, Wikie, 23, and her son Keijo11.
The option to releasing the two animals into the sea was quickly ruled outas they could not survive on their own in the natural environment.
The park initially planned to send the orcas to another enclosure in Japan, but the ministry opposed. Pannier-Runacher justified the refusal with the “fragile” state of the orcas, for which a move of thousands of kilometers to Japan would represent a “important health risk”.
The minister also recalled that Japanese marine parks “are not subject to same requirements as Europeans” for the protection of cetaceans.
A park spokesperson told the daily that the ministry suggested the option of a marine park on the Spanish island of Tenerifein the Canary archipelago, despite stressing that it is “just one track, among others”.
When asked about these options, Pannier-Runacher avoided speaking clearly and said that Marineland should be the one to “present proposals” to the ministry, although he stressed that currently “There is not a sanctuary in the whole world capable of housing the two orcas.”
The animal protection association, very active in this case, considers that the Marineland’s closure is not good news for animals.
In a recent post on the Ecotalk YouTube channel, Corinne Bouvot, association coordinator, criticizes the decision to send the two orcas to other parks around the world, where your situation would be worsened.
“The park wants to make us believe that it will find the best solution for the well-being of the mother and her child. But in reality, you will do everything in your power to get the best price“, says the OneVoice coordinator.
