The Minister of Ecological Transition has announced that she is opposed to the solution proposed by the Antibes animal park, which must separate itself from the two cetaceans before the start of 2026. He suggests instead turning to Spain.
The government will not authorize the transfer of the last two orcas from Marineland to Japan. “There are parks which today are able to accommodate orcas”as “in Spain”more “in Japan, there are no such extensive regulations on animal welfare”estimated the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher on TF1 Monday November 25. The aquatic animal park, located in Antibes on the Côte d'Azur, had made a week earlier to its ministry a request to transfer the two cetaceans to the Kobe park, in western Japan.
“The park carried out several research studies to comply with the law (…) and it appeared that Kobe, which complies with the standards in force, was the best option”supported Marineland at the end of November. A solution to which animal welfare defense associations were opposed. “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, explained Muriel Arnal, president of the One Voice association, at the end of November. The park felt that this solution in Canada was not “not possible”.
Located on the Côte d'Azur, the Marineland park has until December 1, 2026 to part with its two orcas still in captivity, since a law prohibited their detention in 2021. 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. Two others of the four orcas that the park Marineland held until last year recently died, one from septicemia and the other after ingestion of a foreign body.
