The Marineland park in Antibes wants to transfer its last two orcas to Japan

The Marineland water park, on the Côte d'Azur, confirmed on Saturday that it had made a request to the Ministry of Ecological Transition to transfer its last two orcas to a park in Japan, a move denounced by animal rights activists. This request for transfer to a park in Kobe (western Japan) was made at the beginning of the week and the public authorities have two months to respond, indicated the Marineland park, explaining that it simply wanted “anticipate the date of 1^is December 2026 » which is that of the ban in France on shows and the detention of cetaceans under the law of November 30, 2021.

“As of 2021 and the passing of this law, the park has carried out several research projects to comply with the law which requires us to transfer the orcas and it appeared that Kobe, which respects the standards in force, was the best option”supports Marineland, believing that the solution of a sanctuary in Nova Scotia (eastern Canada) proposed by environmental associations, is not “not possible”.

Debate on the health of orcas

President of the animal rights association One Voice, Muriel Arnal told AFP that she had written to the Ministry of Ecological Transition to remind it that “the state of health of the orcas does not, in our opinion, allow their transport” and that one “court decision must be rendered on December 5” about the possibility of making this transfer now.

At the start of the year, One Voice had in fact obtained from the court of Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) that the orcas of Marineland cannot be transferred until a judicial expertise is ordered in 2023 to find out their living conditions, an expertise still in progress. course according to the park, was not finished. Marineland having appealed this judgment, a hearing was held at the end of October before the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, which is due to render its decision on December 5.

Two of the four orcas the park held until last year died recently, one from septicemia and the other after ingesting a foreign body. The two surviving orcas, Wikie and her son Keijo, were both born in captivity in this Antibes park, the first in 2001 and the second in 2013. “We are opposed to this transfer to Japan in basins which are a third of that of Antibes while there is a solution in Nova Scotia” in a marine sanctuary, insisted Muriel Arnal.