Orca Dilemma in France: Youth Voices for Marine Rights

UPDATED: Southern France’s Marineland in Antibes formally closed down on January 5, 2025. Early last year, however, the sea aquarium hit the headlands when proposed transferring to Japan its three remaining orcas, or killer whales. This re-ignited a debate as to whether such mammals should be kept in captivity, let alone exported. While the keeping and breeding of whales and dolphins in captivity will be formally banned from 2026 onwards, the French courts have since decreed temporarily that Antibe’s orcas should not be moved. In this personal YouthWrites article, Marika Adam explores the issue and what to do.

Nearly a year ago, France’s last recreational marine setup at Antibes, which closed its doors on January 5, 2025, opted to sell their three orcas (a fourth animal, Moana, died in October 2023) to a similar aquatic installation in Japan, which currently has seven orcas. The move set off a nation-wide controversy as to whether this was in the interests of these toothed whales and the largest of the dolphin species. The black and white whales can be found in in diverse marine environments, from Arctic to Antarctic regions to tropical seas. They have also been spotted in the waters around the Straits of Gibraltar in the western Mediterranean. (See BBC story on the marine park’s closing and the fate of its orcas).

News quickly spread across social media prompting a major response to Marineland’s decision. Critics, such as France’s animal advocacy associations One Voice and C’est Assez!, felt that apart from the “selling on” of the orcas, the traumatic journey by air might seriously affect their health and well-being.

YouthWrites is an initiative of Global Geneva together with Global Geneva Group, a non-profit media and educational association based in Switzerland. Its purpose is to help young people improve their writing and other communication skills through workshops and other media initiatives. It also seeks to help youth better understand the need for trusted, quality journalism to counter misinformation and disinformation, while becoming more engaged with planetary concerns.

The confinement of cetaceans, as whales, dolphins and porpoises are known, in seaworlds, marinelands and other dolphinariums, forcing them to entertain the public through somersaults and other feats, has long proven a key issue not just in France but world-wide. Over 50 orcas, a highly sociable species which can grow to up to eight meters and are not considered a threat to humans, are believed to be held in captivity in marine parks across the globe according to the California-based International Marine Mammals Project. Belugas, however, are amongst the most commonly kept cetaceans in captivity with some 300 kept in marine aquaria of at least 10 countries such as the USA, China and Russia.

Orcas in the wild. (Photo: The Dolphin Project)

Whales in captivity: a global debate

Critics have long sought to boycott marine parks maintaining sea mammals in captivity. More specifically, they have called for the release of orcas, a species made famous by Hollywood films such as Free Willy (1993) and the 2013 American documentary Blackfish. The latter investigated the consequences of keeping Tilikum, a captive male animal, which died in 2017 but proved conducive in the deaths of three people, two of them trainers.

A 2017 French law banning “the holding or breeding in captivity of cetacean specimens” will come into force in 2026. As a result, Parc Astérix north of Paris and the only other French park to have cetaceans, got rid of its dolphins in 2021.

On January 9, 2024, however, workers at Marineland d’Antibes set up a crane on the edge of one of the pools housing the orcas. The aim, it appeared, was to lift Inouk, his little sister Wikie, and her son Keijo out of the water with the intent of transporting all three by road to the Nice airport, where a Boeing 747-400F was waiting to take them to Japan.

The park’s unusual activity quickly drew public attention to Marineland’s planned operation. Despite tight security measures, the information spread across the social networks. A drone video was posted a few hours later by One Voice. The footage showed the various preparatory stages for what appeared to be the secretive transfer of the whales.

While Marineland has consistently refused to respond to questions, the Alpes-Maritime Prefecture in Nice maintained that the operation was simply a training session “in the event of a move”. It further noted that it had not “received any request for an export permit or health certificate, which are essential for transporting animals abroad.” The Prefecture went on to state that not only is it “very expensive” to train such animals but that if “there are exercises, it’s at Japan’s request for the dolphins.”

As pointed out by critics, the living conditions of “imprisoned orcas” are extremely difficult and tragic. Inouk, a 25-year-old orca and one of three whales destined for Japan, died on 28 March prompting the stepping up of efforts to save the remaining two. One Voice referred the matter to the administrative court, which has since prohibited any transfer of the orcas for fear that they could be seriously harmed until an independent assessment of their state of health has been carried out. While proponents for protecting the whales regard this as a victory, they view the battle to save the whales as far from over.

Whale Sanctuary Project lease area, Port Hilford Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Next steps for captive orcas

The problem is what to do with the animals? Sell them to another theme park, whether in Japan or elsewhere? Leave them in Antibes under strict surveillance? Or move them to a specially prepared outdoor sanctuary?

This latter is gaining ground. Several possible initiatives are already under discussion, even if still waiting authorisation on possible locations and conditions of such a sanctuary. Normally, remedies like this take time. Italy took seven years to prepare a location that will soon be operational. France wishes to do the same, but in six months prompting scepticism. One of the problems argued Christine Grandjean, President and Founder of C’est Assez! is that “our politicians don’t listen to us enough.”

In the meantime, the debate over the captivity and post-captivity of cetaceans continues. For my part, as a concerned individual, I decided to join C’est assez! given the urgency and crucial importance of remaining informed. Hence the need to campaign for the well-being and better living conditions of such marine mammals. Not only are they intelligent and sentient beings, but I also consider it a question of acting. As the native Pacific leaders of the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Aotearoa in New Zealand and Tonga maintained last April, it is crucial to recognize the legal status of orcas and other cetaceans as “non-human beings.”

At the same time, we must question all forms of animal exploitation for commercial purposes. This means investing in a world geared towards greater consideration for living creatures and their habitats. As a concerned human being, I consider it imperative to fight for a better world through greater respect for the environment. Personally, I also see this as adjusting my own consumption habits, whether in relation to food, clothing, and modes of transport. Ultimately, it is up to us all to act if we are to bring about the change needed to benefit our planet.

Marika Adam is a communication student at the Catholic University of Paris (ICP) in Paris. She is a versatile individual with a wide range of interests, including music, diving, photography, and participating in cetacean research projects in Madagascar. Driven by a deep passion for the ocean, she is actively involved in organizations dedicated to marine conservation and the protection of our oceans. Marika contributed this YouthWrites article to Global Geneva.

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