The plan to close the park, which employs 103 employees, was announced in the CSE on Wednesday morning.
Published on 04/12/2024 11:52
Reading time: 1min
The Marineland of Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) announced, Wednesday December 4, “its final closure plan from January 5, 2025”invoking the 2021 law which prohibits cetacean shows. Established on the Côte d'Azur since 1970, the water park has sparked controversy in recent months, by considering the transfer of its last two orcas to a Japanese park. Animal defenders and the Minister of Ecological Transition at the time, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, were opposed to it.
The plan to close the park, which employs 103 employees, was announced to the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) on Wednesday morning, said the park management. “While 90% of visitors choose to come to Marineland to admire representations of orcas and dolphins, the law of November 30, 2021, prohibiting cetacean shows, requires Marineland to consider this closure”explains a press release. The measure will come into force on December 1, 2026. Management also highlights a continued drop in attendance, which has gone from 1.2 million to 425,000 annual visitors in ten years.
Welcoming 4,000 animals of 150 different species (orcas, dolphins, sea lions, turtles and numerous fish and corals), Marineland sets itself as “priority objectives” of “relocate all of its animals to the best existing structures to date”. The management also wishes “negotiate in the coming weeks with the social partners the social consequences of this closure project”.
