His retirement still does not seem peaceful. Almost three years after the vote on the law to combat animal abuse, in November 2021, which marked the end of dolphin and killer whale shows in dolphinariums no later than the end of 2026, the future of cetaceans, still held in water parks, it still stands. very uncertain.
Since the Astérix Park (Oise) prematurely separated from its dolphins (sending them to other European locations in 2021) and the Planète Sauvage zoo (Loire-Atlantique) took advantage of scientific activity to maintain its pools, eyes have turned to the twelve dolphins. and the two remaining orcas from the Marineland of Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes). The latter, which still maintains the shows of these mammals, does not hide its desire to separate itself as soon as possible from the cetaceans, once its main attraction, and which have now become cumbersome.
In a context of incessant pressure (demonstrations by associations that intensified after the death, in October 2023 and March 2024, of two of the four orcas held in the park, multiplication of judicial resources, etc.), the Ministry of Ecological Transition had contacted the General Inspectorate of Environment and Sustainable Development (IGEDD) in early 2024 to study different transfer and placement options.
The report, presented to the government in June, was made public at the end of September. First lesson: Marineland of Antibes has signed, according to this inspection mission, a contract in 2023 with the Kobe Suma Sea World park, in Japan, to transfer its orcas there. A contract, suspected by animal protection associations and feared due to the non-protective Japanese legislation, on which Marineland has never commented until now and which continues “neither confirm nor deny”.
Fast transfer
The inspection report recommends exploring as a priority the transfer of orcas to the Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP), in Nova Scotia (Canada), a project carried out since 2016 by NGOs and scientists, but which is not yet operational and which understands, recognizes the IGEDD, “some risk of failure both in terms of animal welfare and financing”.
Another scenario, presented as “pragmatic”It would consist of moving the orcas to another park, this time in the Canary Islands, Loro Parque, in Tenerife. “The pools there are smaller than those at Marineland, but this option is still less bad than that in Japan, where cetaceans have no legal status and, at least, European associations would have access to them,” believes Christine Grandjean, president of the NGO Enough is Enough!.
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