The mayor of Antibes Juan-les-Pins reacted to the announcement from Marineland, which plans to close permanently on January 5. A hard blow for the region and the park's employees due, according to the councilor, to a lack of anticipation from the State.
The news broke this Wednesday, December 4: the Marineland park in Antibes plans a “permanent closure” in one month, on January 5, 2025. This is “bad news for the territory,” the city’s mayor LR immediately reacted. Jean Leonetti. “We reaffirm our support for the park’s employees.”
This announcement “fills the elected officials and residents of Antibes Juan-les-Pins with sadness”, assures the councilor who nevertheless believes that it was “inevitable”.
This projection of the park is the consequence of the next ban on cetacean shows in France scheduled for December 1, 2026, new legislation should have serious financial consequences for Marineland, which cannot therefore remain open.
The orcas of “collateral victims”
If this law aims to protect animal welfare, the mayor of Antibes Juan-les-Pins notes that it is not accompanied by any measure to shelter cetaceans and denounces hasty policies.
“Since 2020, the State has been unable to carry out the creation of a marine sanctuary, a project which has also been unrealistic on a financial and logistical level,” writes Jean Leonetti. “It therefore now places the cetaceans in the park in a situation contrary to the original objective of animal welfare.”
Consequently, the mayor of the town announces that he remains vigilant “as to the future of animals, which must not become the collateral victims of insufficiently anticipated political decisions.”
Today, two orcas remain present in the Marineland park in Antibes, Wikie and Keijo. Associations regularly request their shelter in marine sanctuaries and oppose a transfer to foreign water parks, while recently the hypothesis of transporting the orcas to Japan had been raised.
