Marineland Canada Shuts Down: The Beluga Whale Rescue Begins

0:00 This week we saw the end of Marineland Canada. If you're not familiar, Marineland Canada is a marine theme park in Canada. It's in Niagara Falls, Ontario, just about 45 minutes away from me where I live. I grew up going to this Marineland or watching the commercials. We only went a couple of times, but watching the commercials where they're saying, "Everyone loves Marineland." But not anymore, because it is officially going to shut down. The last part of them shutting down was to move a number of beluga whales that were in dire straits. They are sick. There's a bad water quality. The park couldn't take care of them anymore. And now six of them are being moved to different marine aquariums throughout the US.

0:44 And so we're gonna talk a little bit about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, ' cause it's big news, and we come here for big news. I am here to update you on all things that have to do with the ocean, especially science and conservation, and this falls under the conservation part of it. We talk ocean every Monday through Friday. That's what we do. We enjoy talking about that. And I inform you, you answer back on TikTok and on Instagram, and you can DM me and all that fun stuff, and we can have conversations. So this is where we start the conversation. If you enjoy that kind of stuff, follow the podcast if you haven't followed it already. But also, if you enjoy it so much that you wanna support me in all the work that I do, not only here but on obviously your favorite podcast app, YouTube, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Facebook, on all the social media platforms like LinkedIn, all that kind of stuff, let me know.

1:30 If you wanna support me, you can do that by going to speakupforblue.com/patreon. That's speakupforblue.com/patreon. Let's get into this. Let's talk about, how did we even get here? Because this is something that has been in the works for a while. I started talking about the Marineland moving or wanting to move these belugas away from Marineland, because they couldn't take care, they couldn't afford taking care of them. If they couldn't take care of them, they were gonna have to euthanize them, which is preposterous, to be honest. Like, it's ridiculous to even think about this. But they were gonna move them to an aquarium in China. And this is where everything kinda like made headlines and things like that. We couldn't do that, and there's a number of reasons for that.

2:11 But first I wanna kinda go through what Marineland is all about. Where did we go and where did we get here? So I got a bit of a timeline to go through of everything that's happened, and then we're gonna dive deep into some of the stuff that's happened most recently. So in 1961, John Haller founds Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario. 29 different killer whales have lived there over the decades, with 11 born on site. In the 1980s, we saw protests begin. So a former teenage employee named Frank, having seen firsthand how animals were treated, becomes one of the earliest public critics, inspiring protests that continue for decades. Marineland later purchases the Green Oaks Trailer Park in 2004, and by 2009, forty-seven neighboring families receive eviction notices as part of the park's expansion, adding to the local land use grievance to the animal welfare one.

2:58 So it's adding to all these different protests. By the 1990s and early 2000s, animal rights groups start raising alarms about enclosure size, animal behavior, and the ethics of keeping whales and dolphins for entertainment. These concerns are largely overshadowed by the park's popularity and its ubiquitous Everyone Loves Marineland ad campaign. Like I said, that jingle will be in my head forever because I watched so many commercials on it in the '90s. I was a teenager in the '90s, and even in the '80s when we heard these campaigns, I mean, it was crazy. It was just all over the place. In August, 2012, the Toronto Star did an exposé, and this is the real turning point before 2016 where we saw some charges laid. The Star interviewed eight former employees, most speaking anonymously, out of fear of legal retaliation.

3:43 And they described five female dolphins swimming almost continuously in murky green water for eight months in 2011 to 2012, with skin falling off in chunks and their color darkening. Two sea lions repeatedly confined in dry cages, once for over two months to protect eyes already damaged by poor water quality, with footage reportedly showing them plunging in their heads into buckets of clean water for relief. Animals going blind due to poor water conditions and requiring treatments with antibiotics and Valium. And then baby beluga that died after being attacked by two adult males, allegedly because there wasn't enough staff to intervene in time. So this was all happening before we had a law go through that you can't have marine mammals in tanks anymore.

4:27 So I think that's something that was really interesting. Now, the owner, as I mentioned, John Holler, and the park's veterinary director both flatly deny these allegations, with Holler stating, " We take care of the animals better than I would take care of myself." And this has been a huge contradictory thing that's been happening throughout captivity. There are people who are saying that the things that they see are just awful in certain aquariums, and other places saying, " Look, we treat our animals better than most children are treated in some parts of the US and some parts in Canada and some parts of the world." It goes back and forth, and it's really difficult to find out, like, what has been going on. And this is where Phil Demers enters as our whistleblower. So he was Marineland's head trainer and the walrus' Smooshie's primary handler.

5:09 And The Star's 2012 investigation was partly what pushed him to go public. His specific allegations centered on the water quality. In September 2011, the park's water disinfection unit broke, forcing chlorine levels to be raised across pools housing Smooshi and other marine mammals. This allegedly caused chemical burns on Smooshi, which is a walrus, by the way, inflamed flippers and fur loss, and skin loss on sea lions isolated in these dry cages. Demers says that his call to move suffering animals to untreated water went unheeded by park leadership, and he quit in 2012. And then October 7th, 2012, one of the last days of the season, roughly 500 protesters demonstrate outside the park. About 150 storm the gates chanting, "Shut it down." And then in 2013, Marineland sues Demers for $1.5 million, alleging he trespassed during a live show and plotted to steal Smooshy.

6:01 And this is where he said that Smooshy actually imprinted on Phil, so he was depressed that Phil wasn't there anymore. And this was in what animal advocates characterized as a SLAPP suit, meaning, to silence a whistleblower. Demers countersues for defamation and abuse of process. This legal battle runs for nearly a decade until both sides drop it in 2022, with Marineland agreeing to rehouse Smooshy and her calf. In November 2016, the Ontario SPCA, the OSPCA, lays its first criminal charges against Marineland, 11 counts of animal cruelty involving land animals, black bears, elk, deer, guinea hens, and a peacock. The Crown later dropped all charges, citing insufficient chance of conviction, and then Marineland responds with a $21 million defamation suit against the OSPCA.

6:46 So obviously, you know, this has been a contentious battle for quite a long time like, not only just from 2016, but from on, like, moving even before that into the '80s. And then in 2018, the founder, John Holler, passed away. His widow, Mary Holler, took over the ownership. In 2019, Canada passes Bill S-203, which is called the Free Willy Bill, banning the breeding, capture, and trade of whales and dolphins for entertainment. Marineland is grandfathered in since its animals were already in captivity, so it's allowed to keep operating. In 2020, Ontario's Animal Welfare Services launched a formal investigation into Marineland. And then the Animal Welfare Services in 2021, declares Marineland's marine mammals in considerable distress due to poor water quality and order system upgrades.

7:31 That same year, five beluga whales are sold to Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Three later died within two years. Marineland is also charged in twenty twenty-one for continuing to use whales and dolphins for entertainment. In March twenty twenty-three, Kiska, Marineland's last captive orca, dies, becoming a rallying symbol for the anti-captivity movement. In early twenty twenty-three, Marineland is put up for sale. In twenty twenty-three to twenty twenty-four, renewed OSPCA, charges over mistreatment of their three black bears result in a guilty verdict in March twenty twenty-four, with fines under provincial law by August twenty twenty-four. Now, in that summer of twenty twenty-four, Marineland closes to the public due to financial distress. The park had only opened for two months that year, with much of it closed and admissions sold at reduced rates.

8:16 In September sixth, twenty twenty-four, Mary Haller dies, and is complicating the succession and future of the park. In October twenty twenty-five, Marineland applies to export its thirty remaining belugas to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China. Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson denies the permit, citing the twenty nineteen law and stating, " All whales belong in the ocean, not in tanks for entertainment purposes." Animal Justice praises the decision, noting Chimelong has an active breeding program and forces whales to perform, both illegal in Canada. On October 3rd, 2025, Marineland says it's running out of money and will have to kill 30 belugas without federal financial support. A source tells the CBC that Marineland plans to hand the whales to the government for euthanasia.

8:59 And October, three days later, Thompson responds that Marineland's failure to plan for a viable alternative does not place the onus on the Canadian government to cover your expenses. So again, they're trying to get away with saying, " Hey, look, we just financially can't take care of it. We're just gonna euthanize them, or we're gonna hand them over to you guys to euthanize 'cause we don't have anything to do with them." I should also mention that the land that Marineland sits on let's just say it's very appealing for developers, and developers are ready to spend a big chunk of change to build golf courses and residences and all this kind of thing. We're in a housing crisis. This is gonna go for a lot of money when it's sold. So late in 2025, Marineland reportedly renews its euthanasia threat framing it as export or death if no deal is reached.

9:40 Activists accuse the company of refusing to engage with proposals for a whale sanctuary off Nova Scotia. In January 2026, Canada conditionally approves export to the US. Marineland is in talks with four institutions: the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut and SeaWorld. In February 27th, 2026, CBC reports two sea lions relocated from Marineland to Vancouver, where there's an aquarium. And in June 2026, DFO endorses a final rescue plan, splitting the belugas between Oceanographic Valencia in Spain and four US locations, depending on final export permits and health checks. Now, with that said, with all that said, the move started this week. July 20th, we saw the move that began.

10:21 Marineland shipped the first six belugas out on Monday. Four of them, named Siena, Acadia, Osiris, and Liouette went to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. And two, Bertie Botts and Frankie, went to SeaWorld in San Antonio. And then it was said by Canada's fisheries minister, " The first wave of the rescue mission at Marineland is underway." And transport trucks were seen moving from Niagara Falls to the Toronto Pearson Airport that evening, with all six whales leaving on a single plane. So look They're out. They are, quote-unquote, "rescued." If they had stayed in those tanks, they would have died eventually. It's just the tanks were not in great condition. There was a lot of, like, overhead video of what they looked like.

11:03 They were green. They were not in good shape. I'm not a vet. I don't know what the last vet health assessment was, but let's be honest, they were not gonna do well. They were not gonna last a long time ' cause the MarineLand just didn't have the money or the people to care for these animals. Now, my opinion on this, scientifically and ethically, if you own a marine theme park with whales or any kind of animals, doesn't matter if they're marine animals or they're land animals, insects, reptiles, it doesn't matter. You should have the ethical obligation and the legal obligation to take care of those animals to the best of your ability. I don't care if you're out of money. Take a loan. I don't care if you lose money on this. You have these animals that are in need of your care. Until you can find other places, legally other places and approved other places, you are on the hook to make sure that they have the best care in the world, and that is just it.

11:53 So the fact that they just said, "Hey, look, if the government doesn't take them off our hands or send someone to take care of them, we are going to euthanize them, we're gonna kill them, ' cause we're just done with them." And now, as I said before, the money was there to buy the property. Once these animals are gone, this sale is gonna go through as fast as Superman running or The Flash. Like, let's be honest. It's gonna go fast ' cause it's very expensive land, and it's very wanted land. People want to buy it for housing and golf courses and everything. It's a very nice part of Ontario, so it's gonna be in there. Now, there's a lot of things that went in, and I'm gonna do a more of a mini doc on my YouTube channel, but I wanted to talk a little bit about the controversies that happened. So a lot of people are expressing their opinions, and I should say that there is a huge debate between anti-captivity people and for captivity people.

12:40 And so they go at it a lot from a personal standpoint, from an online standpoint, like a lot of them don't like each other, a lot of them debate. Some debate like are scientists and they just think it is. They have their opinions, and I'm gonna tell you, the opinions are out these days. And some of the opinions are saying that, "Hey, look, this is what happens when you have a legislation that says you can't keep these animals anymore. You can't show them off for entertainment, you can't use them for entertainment, so there's no shows, there's no breeding. So nobody wants to come to the park and see these animals because they're not putting on a show. And so because of that, you're putting them in financial distress, and eventually they're gonna shut down, eventually they have to go somewhere." That's an interesting take. I get it from that standpoint, but the whole point of this was not to put them through the entertainment, the shows, because it wasn't good for them.

13:27 From a scientific standpoint, a lot of people think, like this is not the way they should be. They should just be left alone. And to be honest, to go see an orca or a is phenomenal. A dolphin is phenomenal. They still need stimulation. There's other ways to do it, but a show was not allowed under the law. You're not allowed to breed them, you're not allowed to get new ones, you're not allowed to trade them, you're not allowed to sell them, you're not allowed to do anything. And with the initial move or wanting to move them to China, to the Ching Lung Aquarium, that wasn't a good move because, with a lot of the captivity that happens in China and Russia, we don't know what goes on behind the scenes. We don't have control. At least going to the US, you know they are treated better. And I think Mystic Aquarium was taken out. I've mentioned earlier this, they might have been one of the original landing spots for some of these belugas, 'cause there was like 30 some odd belugas.

14:10 Mystic was actually taken out of the picture. They're under their own controversy right now. Shedd Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium, SeaWorld San Antonio, they have experience with keeping animals. I don't know their full history and controversies that go along other than just captivity. But I think we're in a situation right now here in Canada where we don't have the same population as we do in the US, and so you're not gonna get the same amount of people rolling through, you're not gonna get the same amount of money rolling through. It's very difficult to keep a marine park going, especially when you can't use for entertainment, completely understand that. But the whole purpose of this was not to have these animals in these tanks anymore. At least if you can't put them back in the ocean, for whatever reason, we'll talk about that in a second, then putting them in an aquarium where they're actually being able to take care of is better than their situation there.

14:54 I think when we look at all of this, as dire and as much as I don't agree with captivity like whales in captivity and marine mammals in captivity, you have to do what's best for the animal at that point in time. Although it's stressful to move an animal, especially if that animal's sick, we don't know what their condition is. We know it's not perfect Moving them could kill them. We don't know. Putting them in the ocean, just in the ocean just without any kinda cages or any kinda taking, that could kill them, too. A lot of them are born in captivity. They have never fed on their own. They've never hunted on their own. They will depend on people to feed them even after they're in the wild. And so there needs to be more of that type of care when we go into the wild. So for instance, when Keiko, Free Willy, when it was released in Iceland, when it was put into a whale seaside sanctuary, it had full care.

15:40 So people were still feeding it. It had veterinary care. They were doing assessments and everything like that. And until it passed away when they finally released it and it decided to go out on its own and eventually passed away. It was almost 30 years old, and it died. But regardless, it had full care for a long time. And so a lot of these animals may or probably will require full care until and if they ever decide to hunt on their own and they ever figure out hunting on their own. They may do it. We don't know. We have no idea if they're gonna do it or not, because all of them have been preconditioned and learnt at a young age that they can get food from humans, and that's all they get food from. They can't hunt on their own 'cause they've never tried hunting on their own. So there's a lot to go on there. And some people will ask, "Well, why didn't it go to the Whale Sanctuary Project?" That it had a location in Nova Scotia.

16:22 They do have most of their permits. The one that I haven't seen is a permit from the federal government. They do have the provincial permit. I haven't seen federal permits, although the executive director, Lori Marino, from the Whales Sanctuary Project, did say on a Facebook post on the comments they had all of their permits. So with them saying they have all their permits, I don't see anything on the government website that they said that they issued those permits, but it doesn't mean they haven't. Lori's saying that they have, and so they would've had all their permits. What they didn't have is they they didn't raise the funds in time or had the funds to put in the infrastructure and construct the facility for these belugas if the belugas were deemed right for this area. There's no way they probably would've been able to fit 30 some odd belugas. I think it was 34 at the time. There was no way they would be able to fit that in that small area.

17:04 They were still getting their permits. They didn't get it until October 2025. And then, of course, they haven't constructed anything. They haven't put the infrastructure in as far as I know at this time of recording. So there's a lot that was still going on there. They still need to raise funds. I still think they're planning on doing, on raising funds. They may get those funds, and when they do, if they get all their permits and they say they have all their permits, they can start construction, and we'll see what happens. But it's gonna require ongoing funding, and we don't know where that ongoing funding is gonna come from. Private donors? Is it gonna come from the Canadian government? Is it gonna come from taxpayer money? We don't know. I don't know if people wanna do that. Is it gonna come from people, like, who owned MarineLand before or who owned marine theme parks as a penance to what they have done or what they haven't done?

17:45 I have no idea. I feel like that's maybe a good idea in the future, but who knows? I feel like some of the money that's made from the land that was sold in Marineland should go to the care of those beluga whales and any of the sea lions as well that were there, because I think that's really important to make sure that they're cared for for the rest of their lives, like for the rest of these animals' lives, wherever they end up. But that's the situation right now. That's what we're going with. I'll keep you updated in another show. I'm working on a mini doc right now to talk about the captivity, anti-captivity, and all of the stuff that's going on. And we'll have visuals and everything like that. So let's just see where that goes from there. Hopefully it'll be out in the next couple of months as things develop and we get interviews done. Until next time, I'd love to hear what you think. Like, what are your thoughts on this? No judgment whether you're anti-captivity or for captivity.

18:26 No judgment here. I would just love your thoughts on this whole process and what's happening in Marineland Canada and how these belugas are being divided up into US aquariums. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. My socials are in the show notes. And of course, if you want to support the show, you can go to speakupforblue.com/patreon. Link is also in the show notes. And I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.