The Marineland of Antibes, in the south-east of France, permanently closed its doors to the public this Sunday, January 5 after the last show of its orcas Wikie and Keijo, victim of public disaffection but also of legislation prohibiting cetacean shows.
“Our hearts are in pieces”: like Salomé Mathis, a young caregiver who came to say goodbye to her ex-colleagues at the water park, visitors and employees expressed their dismay.
“We don't yet realize that these animals are going to be separated and taken very far away,” says sadly in front of the sea lion pool, the 23-year-old young woman, who left to work today in another animal park, the African Safari in Toulouse. (southwest).
Hugging one of her former colleagues, she cannot help but burst into tears under the occasional drizzle in the middle of the installations of what was, for years, the flagship attraction of the Côte d'Azur, with up to one and a half million visitors per year.
“I understand that it is closing with the drop in attendance, but I am disappointed because we could have evolved differently,” laments Jérémy Lo Vasco, 34, a keeper for 10 years in this park which presented itself as the first marine zoo in Europe and employed 103 permanent staff and some 500 seasonal workers.
“For the moment, we are not thinking about our own fate because our priority is that the animals are well, but the blow will come later,” he laments.
He evokes a “snowball effect”, with floods in 2015 which drowned the site, the release of the film “Blackfish” denouncing the captivity of cetaceans, the demonstrations of opponents, the evolution of the public and finally the Covid. So many events which have undermined attendance at the park and led its owner, the Spanish group Parques Reunidos, to announce its definitive closure, with only fun activities to be retained during the summer season.
Opened in 1970
The final blow was given by a French law of November 30, 2021 which bans shows with orcas or dolphins from the end of 2026. However, according to the park management, 90% of visitors, increasing in 10 years from 1.2 million to 425,000 per year, came for these performances.
“It’s a world that amazed me, (…), by coming back here regularly we become attached to it,” explains Jade Ronda, 20, a real estate employee who had recently discovered the park and had fallen in love.
At the ticket office, where more than a thousand tickets had been sold before Sunday noon – a crowd usually reached in summer – the employee preferred to remain silent. After 27 years at home, “psychologically, it’s hard,” she says.
“All employees will benefit from individual support as part of the job protection plan. There are some, like dolphin caretakers, whose job will disappear,” says a management official wishing to stay anonymous.
With her bags full of sweets, a retiree living in Nice (south-east), “Mamie Nougat”, as the park employees nicknamed her, came to distribute her sweets to the staff. “The shows are magnificent, you have to see this interaction between the keepers and the animals, it’s fantastic,” she describes.
The closure of Marineland puts an end to a story that began when Count Roland Paulze d'Ivoy de La Poype, hero of the Second World War, opened this park, modeled on what he had seen in the United States. entirely dedicated to marine fauna.
“The true vocation of Marineland has always been the protection of marine animals. When I created it, in 1970, dolphins, orcas and seals were only game animals hunted with general indifference,” he declared. in 1990, during the 20th anniversary of the park.
On Sunday, Wikie and Keijo, the last two orcas of Marineland, gave their final performance to thunderous applause. The French authorities having refused their transfer to Japan, their future destination remains uncertain, just like that of the 4,000 other animals of 150 different species (dolphins, sea lions, turtles, fish, corals, etc.) which populate the park's pools.
