Canada’s embattled Marineland theme park is to raise money to “expeditiously” remove animals from its grounds, including the world’s largest captive beluga population, as it looks for a buyer. But a lack of available sanctuaries in the country suggests finding a home for stranded whales, dolphins and pinnipeds will be a daunting task.
In February, the park won approval to divide its sprawling property so it can take out mortgages on separate parcels, with the aim of using the funds to keep the park operating and to move the animals. In documents filed to the city of Niagara, Marineland said the financing it had secured “requires the owner to remove the marine animals from the property expeditiously”.
The park has been the focus of intense public scrutiny in recent months. Last year, five belugas died at the facility bringing the total number of whales and dolphins to die there since 2019 to more than 20. There are 31 belugas still at the park.
The park’s lawyer, speaking last month at a meeting of a planning committee convened by the council for the city of Niagara Falls, said the applications filed with the city were meant to “address the elephant in the room”: the removal of the whales and other animals to a new home.
Marineland’s future operations have been clouded by a federal law passed in 2019 and a provincial law dating from 2015 that ban the sale, breeding and captivity of whales. The effect of the ban means that while Marineland’s existing cetacean population can remain at the park, no new whales can be acquired.
Under the approved plan, once the animals are resettled, Marineland would merge the land parcels back together in order for the park to be sold.
The deaths of its founder, John Holer, in 2018 and his wife, Marie, in 2024 have also cast the park’s future into uncertainty. While it opened last year to the public, its operating season was shortened, fewer rides were open and some animal exhibits were shut. Mounting public opposition to the use of captive animals has also contributed to a decline in visitors.
While advocacy groups have long called for the animals to be removed from the park, they feared the accelerated timeline could mean the animals are shipped out of the country.
“We are also very concerned about the inclusion of the term ‘expeditious removal’ of marine mammals required by Marineland’s bridge-loan financier, and the likelihood that the whales would be sold off to yet another entertainment facility, perhaps in China, where the welfare laws are almost nonexistent,” Lori Marino, president of the Whale Sanctuary Project, told the planning committee. “Such a move would be entirely contrary to the intent and spirit of the law [to end cetacean captivity].”
Marino said the sanctuary project has spent nearly a decade creating a space where belugas and orcas could be transferred and while the project is nearing completion, it is unclear when exactly the Nova Scotia-based facility might be able to accept whales.
“We are ready to work with all parties – Marineland, animal protection organisations, the government, foundations and other donors – towards providing a better future for the beluga whales and the dolphins at Marineland,” said Marino.
Melissa Matlow, campaign director for the Canadian chapter of World Animal Protection, warned there was a chance that “the whales would be sold to a venue that will breed them under the guise of conservation, in contravention of the intent of Canadian legislation”.
She told the planning committee that Ontario was the “weakest jurisdiction” when it comes to enforcing animal protection laws.
