Marineland Beluga Export Denied: What Happens Next for Canada’s Captive Whales

0:00 Can a Canadian marine theme park called Marineland Getaway with euthanizing 30 of its beluga whales after being denied a permit to ship 'em off to China. That's the big question we're gonna be talking about today because it is a big controversial thing. You know, the government that refused the permit has been getting blamed for refusing the permit because marine land is threatening that they'll have to do euthanasia. So they'll have to actually, you know, put them down. but is this really the question here? Should they not be mandated that marine land that is mandated to be taking care of these marine mammals as they purchase. Park a number of years ago. We're gonna be talking about the law. We're gonna be going over why it's important from an ethical standpoint, and we're gonna talk about some of the options that Marine Land has and the government has in making sure that these animals are taken care of for the future.

0:47 That's on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. Let's start the show. Hey everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. Now, today's episode, we're gonna be talking about quite a controversial topic. Now it's controversial because it has to do with marine mammals in captivity. Now there are two sides. To the captivity argument. There's a side where people think that it's okay to keep marine mammals in captivity. And they say it's good for entertainment and education purposes as long as the animals are being taken care of. The other option is like the other argument side.

1:27 The argument is. No marine mammals should be in captivity. They should be out free. And those that are in captivity should have a plan to put them free at some point in time. Now, the big argument against putting them out into, say, like a whale seaside sanctuary, like the Whale Sanctuary Project is doing is that these animals, a lot of them have been born in captivity and they're not used to the, you know, the wild and they're not used to the ocean and there's a lot of diseases and bacteria that they're not used to. They're not used to feeding for themselves and so forth. And that's a big deal to a lot of people that everybody wants to make sure that the marine mammals are treated properly. And the argument for those whale seaside sanctuaries is the fact that no matter what, at some point these animals should taste freedom.

2:09 They should be able to be taken care of. You know, if they're already used to being fed on a regular basis, they still get that care to be fed, but they're allowed to roam around in a larger seaside pen. There's an opening that you can open. There's a great example of caco, you know, free Willie, that orca that was let free up in Iceland eventually passed away. I think it was like six to 10 years later. I didn't a whole episode. I'll try and find it and link to it below, but there's a lot of controversy around it, and it's just because there's the each side says. The science says that it's better to keep them either captive or keep them outta captivity. Everything is new when it comes to out of captivity, but you'll see both sides. The goal that I'm trying to do right now is present to you. You know, just the options that are happening and sort of what actually happened.

2:49 So just a couple of days ago, last week, really, there are 30 marine mammals, belugas that are in captivity, in Marineland, which is in Niagara Falls, Canada, not too far down the road from me. So I've been following this story quite closely over the last number of years. Now, over the last five, maybe even 10 years, Marineland has been under controversy because it hasn't been taking care of its whales. Very well. The orca passed away. A bunch of beluga whales have passed away. Those that they've transferred around or out of the park have died after the transfer. It's because the water quality's not great. There's been a number of inspections by the Ontario government, the provincial government, where the marine park is, like where marine land is, as well as since that time, there's been an act passed to protect marine mammals from captivity in that you are not allowed to import or export any marine mammals without any kind of permit.

3:39 And so this year, the park wasn't open. It didn't open at all as it did last year. And so they weren't making a lot of money or weren't making any money at all from people coming to the park. And even though Li tens was going down anyway, and they weren't able to take care just as usual, they haven't been able to take care of these 30 beluga whales, which they have left over. And so they wanted to get rid of them and put them in a marine park in China. Now marine parks in Asia are blowing up. That means they're popping up all over the place and we're seeing them everywhere. There is a concern on the US Canadian side and advocate side, even in Europe, because we don't know how animals are treated in China. We've seen some really bad treatments of animals in the past, marine mammals as well as other mammals.

4:21 We've seen polar bears be stuck in a mall, like in a little box essentially, and not having a lot of Not a lot of stuff to, you know, provide enrichment in that area or movement in that area. So a lot of people are concerned, a lot of advocates for the anti captivity advocates are worried that if we ship a lot of these belugas, offer all these belugas off to China, we'll never see or hear from them again. They'll be put back into entertainment positions where there'll be pet or You know, they'll have one-on-ones with people, which is not good for them as well as this is according to them and according to the science. It's not good for them overall to be in shows. The whole point of the Protection Act here in Canada was to make sure that they aren't bred and they aren't put into positions where they are gonna be for entertainment.

5:03 And so there's research permissions, they're allowed, and we'll go through that in a second. but there's a lot of worry about that. So what happened was Marine Land applied for a permit to export it based on this new protection act. And they got denied by the Fisheries Oceans Canada because they were like, this is against what we want. We don't want these animals to go into captivity forever, and so we need to find something that is different for that. And so that's what they're looking for Now is a different avenue towards making these animals free or devoid of having to do entertainment or any kind of theme park related show or even breeding. So. That's where we're at right now. And now because the application got denied, the marine land is like, well, We can't afford to take care of this.

5:44 So either provide us funding so we can take care of these animals, or we might have to lean towards euthanization, which is basically putting these animals down one by one, all 30 of them Now that's blown up. The government of Canada. who gives the permits, so whether it's Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada is taking a lot of flack from people. 'cause nobody wants to see these animals die for no reason. Just the fact that they can't take care of it. And I've had a couple of people ask me some questions. I was at a dinner last night, somebody asked me questions about it and I was like, nobody's actually said, Hey, Marine Land owns these animals. It is up to them. It is the ethical nature of people who own, or companies who own these marine parks to take care of their animals. They haven't been taking care of these animals.

6:24 At all. And the risk you take when you have these animals knowing what's coming and the new laws that's in place and everything is that you still have to take care of these animals, even if you're shut down, even if you're not getting any income in your ethical, I guess, mandate is to take care of these animals at the best health as possible, meaning they are fully healthy and not in degraded water quality, which is what we're finding them in over the last 10 years. That's a big problem that I have with it. That's a huge thing of what we are looking at before. So a lot of people are like, okay, so what happens now? What are these animals going to be, you know, killed? Are they gonna be euthanized? What do we do? So the first thing is, here's the federal framework. You have the captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act.

7:05 It was established in 2019, so it was amended to the criminal code. The Fisheries Act and an act called, the acronym is wata, I think is what it's called. It's a pretty long one. I'll, look for it if I have it, but it's a pretty big one. and so that's what we're looking at. So we're also looking at capturing any new citations or breeding are prohibited with limited exceptions. Trade requires permits and must meet strict welfare, scientific standards. So just to take it back a number of years before COVID, I think it was like five beluga whales were transferred over down into Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Now, with those animals that were transferred, many of them passed away. I think maybe all of all, but one, and maybe all of them passed away when they, by the time, like maybe three or four months after they got to mystic Aquarium.

7:50 It wasn't necessarily Mystic Aquarium's problem. But the problem is, is the way that the assessment was done is marine land. Veterinarians look over the belugas and then mystic looks over the belugas as well, and they deem, oh yeah, these are healthy. And then we're gonna go through. But there's a conflict of interest there. There's no third party veterinarian that's saying, Hey, you know what, there's actually a problem here. We're gonna call both of you out because you guys, you know, mystic just wanted the belugas. The marine land just wanted to get rid of the belugas and they want to get money for that. So, you know, there's obviously a problem there that needs to be solved at some point in time. And so I want to make sure that we got that out there, like that history. And so those animals ended up dying. There's obviously a problem with that. And so now these new laws and permits, people are gonna be more strict because we don't want these animals dying in the transfer plus everything with China that we don't know what happens.

8:34 We're not familiar with the laws. We know what they do with marine theme parks, but still kind of, we're not too, too familiar with what's happening or I'm not too familiar with what's happening. So there's a bit of a worry about these animals going across the world to go to China and be put in entertainment situations, put in breeding situations, and we're not allowed to do that. So why are we letting other countries do it as well to the marine mammals that were found here. Now, when you put them back out into the ocean, into whale seaside sanctuaries. That's a possibility. but we just don't know where. It's never been done before, or it hasn't been done in a long time. there's actually a story of a beluga whale in Russia that either escaped or got let go in a pen and actually interacts with fishers in Bo in like in Russia.

9:15 And we'll actually go fetch a ball and do all these tricks and stuff like that. That survived. So there's a little bit of an anecdotal evidence that says, Hey, you know what? These animals could survive out at sea, but we just don't know. So that's the thing. So here are the options that are next. I wanted you guys to get that information so. Marineland can submit a new, narrowly tailored transfer plan that meets the federal Welfare Test. So DFO Signal, it would consider proposals under the Fisheries Act. It's a compliant plan would need to show that any transfer is clearly in the animal's best interest, not for the entertainment or breeding. And that the destination meets high welfare standards with independent veterinary oversight and lifetime care guarantees.

9:56 Potential candidates include US accredited facilities or non entertainment research and rehab settings subject to both Fisheries Act and Society permits. Cities is like a trade, a convention trade of animals across different, like certain animals can't go across certain borders You know, without being considered or without being managed properly. Now the government assisted placement in North America, there could be government assistance. So Ottawa and Ontario, the province where marine land is where I live could coordinate with accredited aquariums or sanctuaries that could take some of the animals possibly in phases with monitored transport and individualized welfare plans. Ontario's paw, PAWS Powers, could be used to enforce interim care standards or appoint custodians if the distress thresholds are met.

10:40 So there are ways that we can do it. From Canada and Ontario to actually put people in place that will take care of this and offer some funding that will do that. There's also interim stabilization funding tied with strict conditions. So temporary public support is possible as a bridge, but expect the third party management escrow funds restricted to feed medical care, water systems, enrichment, and daily veterinary coverage. Plus transparent reporting. So Marineland has publicly asked for federal help, which creates space for a conditional arrangement while permanent placements are arranged. You can also transfer to the C pen sanctuary when ready. Now the sanctuary is not ready yet. It's taken a while to put together. obviously it's very, very new. Within the taking out of captive animals.

11:21 And it was more designed for orcas at this point. so having that, I don't see it happening anytime soon. I would like to see at least some of those animals go out and just as a, pilot study. some people are not too happy about it. Some people are happy about it. It's a bit of controversial, but. Really, we won't know until we start letting some of those animals go to those seaside sanctuaries. so that'll be interesting to see. Now, as I said before, these animals could be fed by caretakers and taken care of managed. They're not just gonna be let go, and that's the end of them, and that's the last time we'll see it unless they're ready to do so. Now, provincial enforcement can also be put in up to a seizure and custodianship if distress is critical. So if inspectors determine that there's critical distress. The Pause Act of Ontario allows intervention, including removing animals or mandating care by a third party.

12:06 I can't see the removal of animals at this point, but I can see a third party coming in. This could be triggered by a failure to provide food, veterinary care, or safe water systems. Now, I assume that a lot of these places aren't going to allow euthanasia, but the last one is euthanasia only for legitimate medical reasons. So humane euthanasia belongs to veterinary decisions for individual animals with intractable suffering. These animals aren't suffering necessarily. They're suffering because of their water quality conditions, but that can be improved. So euthanasia is probably the last case scenario. And because it makes headlines and it triggers, you know, clicks, I think that's being used a lot and it's scaring the hell out of people. So that's where we're at really is with these animals. It looks like the government's gonna step in.

12:48 They're gonna put people in place that can happen, that can make this happen a little easier and take care of these animals. The biggest thing, like at, at very least, these animals should remain in captivity and being taken care of until they, they pass. That's probably the safest thing for them Now. Not my opinion, but I'm sure that's what a lot of people are thinking, just because we don't know how the transfer's gonna go. However, it would be more ideal, in my opinion, my scientific opinion, to put them out, or at least some of them out in a pilot study into the whale seaside sanctuary that is actually being deemed in the coast of Nova Scotia. Will that be ideal waters for them? Not really, because there haven't really been belugas in those areas, but at least they'll be monitored. By a team that can care, that can feed, that can look after its medical stability.

13:30 And so that will be really helpful. So that's it for today's episode. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you think that these animals should be released out to the ocean, into these whale seed size sanctuaries? Do you think they should be kept where they are or do you agree that they should go to China? I would love to hear your opinion. Let me know in the comments below if you're watching this on YouTube or you can let me know through email. Just go to speak up for blue.com/contact, fill out the form. It goes right to my email. If you want to connect me right away, you can do so through dms on Instagram at how to protect the ocean, that's at how to protect the ocean. That's it for today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. Have a great day. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the True North Strong and Free. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.