Marineland d'Antibes: what will become of the orcas in the park, forced to close due to the ban on cetacean shows?

It will have been at the heart of numerous controversies. Three years after the introduction of the 2021 law banning cetacean shows, the Marineland water park in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) announced its “plan for permanent closure” on Wednesday December 4. The establishment, which employs a total of 103 employees, must officially close its doors on January 5.

Opened in 1970, Marineland presents itself as the first marine zoo in Europe. Since the death of two of its orcas, the park installed on the Côte d'Azur has been the subject of heated protests. A controversy which only intensified with the announcement of the plan to transfer the two remaining orcas, born in captivity, to a park in Kobe, Japan. At the end of November, the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher opposed this transfer due to Japanese regulations on “animal welfare”.

“They must take responsibility for their animals and not throw them in the trash”

According to the establishment, this plan to close the park is “totally unrelated” to the case of the transfer of the orcas, which must be the subject of a decision by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal on Thursday. At the start of the year, the animal rights association One Voice obtained from the Grasse court (Alpes-Maritimes) that the orcas cannot be transferred until a legal expertise is ordered in 2023 to find out their living conditions. It wasn't finished. Marineland appealed. “The coincidence is still disturbing, when the judge must make his decision tomorrow on whether or not the orcas should leave,” declared the president of One Voice, Muriel Arnal. “Whether Marineland closes or not, they must take responsibility for their animals and not throw them in the trash like old things!”, she protests, recalling that “Keijo has just turned 11 and his mother Wikie is 23. They have 60 years of life expectancy ahead of them!”

In its press release, Marineland says it is “forced to consider separating from the animals before the implementation of the 2021 law against animal abuse which will ban cetacean shows in France from December 2026 and will limit the possibilities of keep orcas in captivity. However, “90% of visitors choose to come to Marineland to admire the representations of orcas and dolphins”, affirms the park, which also reports “serious economic difficulties” due to a continued drop in attendance, past in ten years from 1.2 million to 425,000 visitors per year.

4,000 animals of 150 different species

With some 4,000 animals of 150 different species (orcas, dolphins, sea lions, turtles and numerous fish and corals), Marineland's “priority objectives” are to “relocate all of its animals into the best existing structures to date.” ” and to “negotiate in the coming weeks with the social partners the social consequences of this closure project”. Specifically concerning cetaceans, Marineland says it is “in close contact with the competent authorities to identify the best solutions” to accommodate them “in equivalent structures in terms of quality of care and educational projects, with the sole priority being the well-being of the cetaceans. animals”.

At the end of November, Agnès Pannier-Runacher raised the possibility that the orcas would be transferred to parks respecting “European regulations”, such as that of Tenerife in the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries. A solution rejected by One Voice, whose president affirms that “the park in Spain is the same as in Japan”, with “very small pools where the orcas fight”. According to her, this Spanish park “lost four orcas in four years, the last of which ten days ago”, and the association is still pleading for the two orcas from Antibes to find refuge in a sanctuary in Nova Scotia (East). of Canada).