In court against the lack of clarity of Marineland and the State

A trampled legal framework

The dolphinariums have responded in particular to the same ministerial decree as the zoos. As such, they must contribute to the preservation of wild, free or captive animal species and the conservation of biological diversity. These actions are all the more important as it is now established that dolphin and orca shows are devoid of any educational value and endanger the populations of free orcas and dolphins.

In this context, dolphinariums must, for example, participate in:

• research for better knowledge and aimed at the conservation of species,
• training about conservation,
• the exchange of information,
• and restocking and reintroduction of species into wild habitats.

All of this, ensuring the welfare of the animals concerned. In addition, a report describing the actions undertaken must be sent to the Prefect at least every three years.

An endless game of changing goal posts to obtain justice

In order to obtain the closure of dolphinarias and in addition to our actions raising-awareness, we wish to show that their true intentions are commercial, especially as captive cetaceans are never released into the wild. For that, we must get hold of the activity reports of the parks. At the end of October 2017, we asked the departments of the prefectures corresponding to each French dolphinarium for a copy of these reports.

For Parc Asterix, the Prefecture has the report and in perfect knowledge of the legal obligations, we were forwarded this document. For Planète Sauvage, the report was not sent to the Prefecture which cannot transmit it to us, but however, it is aware of the obligation of the dolphinarium and therefore the legal framework applicable to zoos.

Marineland and the Alpes Maritimes Prefecture pretend ignorance

For the Prefecture of the Alpes Maritimes, on the other hand, not only has Marineland not transmitted a report, but the state services are making themselves the force behind this masquerade by trying to make us look incompetent. Pretending that we still don’t know what report we’re talking about after we’ve gone to the CADA (the Access to Administrative Documents Commission) to force them to send us this document. This is a bureaucratic exercise. This is also worrying and serious! This just shows the contempt that some of our state representatives may have for these sensitive and intelligent individuals.

We are suing for orcas and captive dolphins!

We therefore appealed to the Administrative Court of Nice to obtain this report from Marineland, particularly on the orcas they hold captive in Antibes. There have already been too many deaths so far. Held in the tiny pools in comparison to their size and their need to swim and dive, Wikie, Inouk, Moana, and Keijo go around in circles, they must still perform in the show and above all to obey. Shouka, the last of the five French orcas is isolated abroad. What did they do to deserve this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

All these actions take time but progress. Our fight for dolphins and orcas held captive in dolphinariums is the right way to go. The hearing will take place on February 7^th at 11:30 am in the Administrative Court of Nice.

We will never give up, no matter how powerful our opponents are. In the northern hemisphere North America, Russia, the Far North and even the southern hemisphere Japan, or closer to home, in Spain, Portugal or even Greece. We are present all year-round regarding captive and suffering cetaceans, we participate in financing actions abroad and establish international partnerships. Dolphins, belugas and orcas do not know borders, we must protect them and defend them. We have filed an appeal to the Council of State for misconduct by the French State to adopt a new order identical to the precedent, cancelled for a technical detail, and they claim 500 000 euros for this deficiency. Please sign our petition to end dolphinariums in France.