Marineland Beluga Whales: What Happens Next and Why This Decision Matters for Animal Welfare

0:00 Marineland belugas are set to leave Marineland finally. But where are they going to go? The government of Canada has allowed some export permits to be permitted if they go to this one particular country. We're gonna talk about that 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, Marine biologist and science communicator here to tell you 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. On today's episode, we have a huge update in the Marineland beluga whale saga.

0:40 Just to give you an update, there are 30 beluga whales that are left at Marineland Park in Niagara Falls. It's a Marine theme park that's been open since I can remember. The jingle that was played when I was a kid was, everyone loves Marineland. Sorry for that voice, but that's what the jingle was. And it's etched in my brain, but I'm gonna tell you something. Not everybody loved Marineland, including myself, especially when I became an adult. I got educated in it. I went to a show one time and I took my girlfriend who's now my wife, wanted to show her like what whales were like, not that she's never been to Marineland, but it was like a common thing that we would do. And I remember witnessing how badly the dolphins were treated. And there was a dolphin that came out of the gate, got clipped by the gate and started bleeding outta the blow hole.

1:23 They continued with the show and allowing that dolphin to continue with the show instead of taking in the back. They said that the dolphin wanted to continue. Probably not. It was probably injured, but probably wanted the food that was given to them when they do each trick. Anyway, we know the saga of what's happened with marine mammal captivity. Blackfish came out, and even before that, there were advocates and activists that were staunchly against captivity of these whales. Not only beluga whales, but orcas. Marine mammals of all sorts. It's pretty much an experiment that we realize has not really gone well. You know, obviously people want to connect with animals. They can connect with these whales, see how smart they are by doing tricks and all that kind of stuff But the trade of orcas and marine mammals in captivity got outta hand and it got to a point where some trainers, some orca and dolphin trainers were killed over that time.

2:06 You saw that in Blackfish. You saw that document in a lot of different places, and it's unfortunate that people had to pass away for us to realize that maybe this isn't a good idea. Blackfish came out, everything changed. Breeding stopped, show stopped. And because of that, even in Canada, they made laws where you can't do captivity. You can't have it. The Canadian government had a law that was called the Ending of the Captivity of Whale and Dolphins Act that was enacted in 2019. It banned the keeping of citations in captivity for entertainment. And then, so basically Marineland, which was an entertainment facility for animals was essentially kind of halted. They were grandfathered the whales that they had, but they couldn't keep any new whales. Now, if you know anything about the Marine theme parks, they make big money on trading or selling animals as well as breeding.

2:52 So selling their sperms. They would have, you know, breeding money from it. They would get revenue from the breeding, And so the breeding programs were canceled. The captivity programs were canceled. And so then they weren't allowed to do any kind of show. So Marineland in essence just shut down because that was their big thing. Everybody loves Marineland and on that jingle on the video on the TV would show an orca just jumping up in the air and everybody being in awe how big and how far it could jump out of the water and into the air. That was done. And so, so was Marineland in and of itself. And so Marineland shut down a few years ago. It hasn't reopened, but unfortunately during this time, not just during the time where this act came in, the Ending of Captivity of Whale and Dolphins Act. It essentially there was a while for a long time, like I would say more than 20 years, there were allegations and proof that the animals weren't being treated properly.

3:38 There was a huge advocate that came out that used to train a walrus at Marineland. He came out and said, Hey, the facilities are crap. The people who are doing the things are doing their best. They're trying to take care of these animals, but you know, the water quality's bad. The animals are not treated well. They're not fed properly. Not enough money is being put into their pools and their containers and their water quality and their food and everything like that. So allegations kept coming and coming and coming. Of course, advocates were ensuring that the Humane Society of Canada, the Ontario government, a lot of other, IO, which is I forget what it stands for. But essentially, you know, a lot of animal welfare groups came out and said, Hey, we need to make sure that these animals are being treated properly. There were a lot of fines that had to be paid over the years. And then when this act came in, it pretty much just shut down Marineland.

4:20 It sucks to see a business like that go outta business. But when it's at the behest and at the consequence of treating animals poorly, then you kind of be like, it's no wonder that happens. Now since its shutdown, the property of Marineland is in big demand for development. Southern Ontario where Marineland is in Niagara Falls, it's prime land for housing development, golf courses, all that kind of stuff. So the Marineland company wants to sell the land so that they can get outta the business. The parents die that originally owned Marineland. The kids are like, we want out. We want nothing to do with this place. So Kiska was the orca. That orca passed away about a year and a half ago, a couple years ago. Now they have 30 beluga whales.

5:00 They used to have over 50 beluga whales. And every time those beluga whales got transferred a number of years ago, the beluga whales, there were about 50 some odd. About four beluga whales were transferred over to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Now, normally Mystic Aquarium is very good. They were getting these belugas. But the problem was, there was concern over the health of the belugas in Marineland. And the way it was done. I remember doing an interview with Dr. Naomi Rose. She was saying that the way the transfer is done is very sketchy in that the veterinarians of Marineland and the veterinarians of Mystic Aquarium would look over the animals together and they would make a prognosis of yes, they're ready to be transferred. First of all, when they were about to transfer those animals, they switched them. It was supposed to be four original ones. They switched them to a different ones because those animals were not in good health.

5:43 And so the ones that were transferred, one died as soon as it got there. And then two of them I think died later on. Maybe all three of them died later on. These animals are not well. They're not taken care of properly. The water quality's down. It's very expensive to look after a whale, and these whales were not treated well. And so we continue to see Marineland trying to get rid of these whales. Now there's 30 of these beluga whales. A lot of 'em have died off. Marineland's, like we want them out. Like we can't take care of them anymore. And if we don't get them out, we are going to euthanize them. Which is crazy to think about euthanizing these animals 'cause you can't pay enough to take care of them. And of course you're not getting any money 'cause it's closed down. You can't just euthanize animals. You have an ethical duty to take care of these animals.

6:24 They under your care, you brought them in, you wanted money off of them. And now that you can't show them off or, you know, have people pet them or anything like that and you're not treating them well. You're just gonna say, we're just gonna euthanize 'em if we can't sell 'em off. About a year ago, they said, Hey, if we can't ship 'em off, we want a permit. 'cause they need a permit. Now because of this new act. We want a permit to ship 'em off to a Marine theme park in China. Which China will have shows, they will breed them, they will make money off them, and they'll continue to do that. And we don't know what the standard is for the animal welfare in these Marine theme parks in China. We just don't know how they're being treated. It's not well known. There've been some visits, but really we just don't know. It's probably not good.

7:05 If we couldn't do it well here in Canada, China's not known for their best animal rights from what I have heard and what I have seen. But you just never know. And we just don't know. And so we don't wanna take the chance. The government of Canada said no to those exports because they're like, why are we going to ban them here? So you can't use 'em for entertainment. You can't use 'em for breeding. And then ship 'em off to a place where you can use 'em for entertainment and you can use 'em for breeding. That kind of goes, it's really hypocritical of what we're trying to do. We're trying to protect these whales. There were two options. One of the options is to export them to another Marine theme park, somewhere else around the world that doesn't include Russia or China, where they use them for entertainment and breeding. France doesn't allow it.

7:46 The US sometimes they allow it to transfer, but no new captures. So maybe the US or they can go to a sanctuary. We'll get to the sanctuary part in just a sec. I'm gonna make an entire video on the Whale Seaside sanctuary in Nova Scotia because there's a lot to know in there, and I'm still trying to get the full story around that. But then there's this other side of like, Hey, where else can it go? Can it go to the states? Can it go to somewhere else in Europe? We just don't know. We were on a bit of a hiatus in terms of exports and permits 'cause there were no permits issued. Marineland has come out over and over and over again. Hey, we are going to have to euthanize these animals if we can't get rid of them. They want to euthanize 'em 'cause they can't take care of them anymore. But they also wanna sell their land. So at this point there's a conflict of interest.

8:26 They can make a lot of money by getting rid of them. Maybe get a little money in the aquariums that take 'em, or the theme parks that take 'em, that they'll pay for them. And/Or they can make a ton of money, a boatload of money selling the land for development. So there's a bit of a rush on this, and they're willing, it seems to kill these animals so that they can get that bag of money when they sell it to develop. At this point, the Canadian government said the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans met with Marineland officials and agreed in principle to an export plan. But the final permits still depend on Marineland, submitting detailed travel and care information, as well as veterinary assessments of each animal's fitness for transport. Here's where there's a possibility of them going. They will go to US Aquariums.

9:08 And the potential recipients are the Shed Aquarium in Chicago, the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. I'll try that again. And SeaWorld at the various locations. None of these facilities have formally confirmed acceptance yet. And critics are warned by sending the belugas to other captive environments merely continues the cycle of captivity rather than offering them a retirement in a sanctuary. Again, we're gonna get to that sanctuary in just a moment lightly and briefly. In this episode, I'm gonna do a deeper dive later on as I'm doing research to do another narrative episode and seeing what goes on there. Okay, so here we go. Now we have this Marineland that's putting pressure on the government saying, we're gonna euthanize these animals if we can't get rid of them soon.

9:49 We know that they wanna sell it off for development. So again, that's the part I don't understand. The government should just be like, screw you. You're the ones who wanted these animals. You're gonna have to take care of them. If you don't take care of them we find out you euthanize them, we're gonna put you in jail for animal cruelty. That's the way it should be. They should not be allowed to euthanize, and the government has always come out and said. There's no way they're gonna be able to euthanize 'em, but there's no way we'll give them permission to do so, and there'll be serious consequences if we do. Hopefully that means, I hope this never comes to fruition. I don't want these animals to die for no reason. They are sick. The only way they would be euthanized if they can't be moved, and if they're health is going downhill and we can't get them better. So here are the choices. It's either export them or.

10:30 Right now Marineland wants to euthanize 'em, which I don't think is really an option. I don't think the government will allow that to happen. Now, sometimes these businesses will ask for forgiveness instead of asking for permission. So we don't know really what's gonna happen to these areas. So there's a lot of controversy around that. To me, it's just lack of responsibility for taking care of the animals that made you so much money over the years. It's just such a disrespect, and I think it's really where private industry gets a lot of criticism when it comes to these types of situations where animals are involved and they're making you money, and once they don't make you money, you want to kill them off. And I think that's really selfish of these business, if that's what they want to do, especially when they can make a boatload of money for development.

11:13 So hopefully that's not even on the table, but that keeps coming out in the press maybe because the press likes to hear that and they like to put that in the headline and people will click on it. Who knows what's gonna happen. But regardless, there's gonna be an export at some point somewhere. Now, this is not just the only option. The other option is we export them to a sanctuary. Okay, so here's the Diddy on sanctuaries. Like, here's the information. Okay? I am gonna download some of the information. Sanctuaries are not a perfect thing. We hear the big sanctuary is the Whale Sea Sanctuary project that's in Port Hilfer Bay, Nova Scotia, or that is under development and has some permits to put in place, but they're not even close to handling belugas or any animals at this point 'cause there's no infrastructure.

11:56 The Transport Canada and Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada have not issued permits for that. The landowners, I think there's only one landowner that said it's okay to do it, but there's still four more landowners that said, Hey, if we give you permission to do this, we lose access to our harbor 'cause there's gonna be belugas in there 'cause there's also two belugas that they wanna put in there. And as well, we lose access to our land and our beautiful property that we paid so much for. There's a lot of controversy around there and there's people who are saying like, this should not be put in place. It's an American company that's holding onto it, or American organization. Some people are not liking what this American organization has done in the past within the whale captivity. Some people are saying that's all false and it's being blown outta proportion. I'm getting to the midst of that and I'll probably do a more detailed episode coming up shortly, within the next month or so on the whale sanctuary project.

12:43 Want to go down the middle. I don't wanna say one or way or another trying to be like a scientist and try not to be as biased as possible. So, look. And this sanctuary, probably not the size for 30 belugas, maybe 10 at once, but we don't know if it'll all be able to handle it if it's operational. And then there's also two orcas that might be put in there as well from France. So we'll see what happens there. Now there is an existing international sanctuary called the Sea Life Trust Beluga Sanctuary in Iceland. Now, this is currently the only operating seaside sanctuary for belugas in the world. It is located off the coast. I'm gonna try and pronounce this. Vestmannaeyjar Something like that in Iceland. I apologize if I didn't pronounce that properly.

13:24 I definitely didn't pronounce that properly. I apologize for that. And it's a home to two belugas, little gray and little white, living in a closed, natural bay environment. The facility designed for rehabilitation and extended care in seawater rather than traditional aquarium tank. The site shows that seaside sanctuaries can work for belugas, but it's not clear that it currently has the space or the plans to take a large group, like the ones in Marineland. So advocates, nonetheless, a site that is proof of concept and the true sanctuaries can be built. So the question here is if this is not big enough, can it be expanded for these 30 belugas if they're able to even travel to Iceland to be able to do this? And it's in and of itself a chore to do.

14:06 And then when I say chore, I mean that lightly. it is a huge, huge chore. I'm underrepresenting that. It's a big thing, especially if they're not doing well in the first place. They have to be at a certain health level before they can be transferred. So if we can make 'em bigger and they can be transferred, that would be great. We'll see how that works out. But other than that, other places have not been built. Like the Whale Sanctuary project in Nova Scotia has not been built. And there aren't any other areas that can be done at this point that I know of. If you know of any other place, let me know in the comments below, or go to speak up for blue.com/feedback and you can let me know what you think, either by voicemail or by writing it. So writing it down. I would love to know. There may be some other sanctuaries or retirement facilities in planning stages.

14:47 Some done for bottle nose dolphins in the past. But really the only other one is probably the Whale Sanctuary project. And again, we just don't know if it's big enough or the area that you would have belugas at this point. There are belugas in the St. Lawrence River. It's an endangered population. I don't think you'd wanna put it there because it's around an endangered population. The genetics are different, so we probably don't wanna be doing it there. And some advocates are saying, Hey, why don't we just let them free and see what happens? If they're gonna die in the tank, why don't we just let them die at sea and see what happens. Now we've seen some. There's one beluga in Russia that is free and that has an impact, I guess. It comes up to boaters all the time, and you can throw a ball to it and it'll go fetch and it'll bring it back. But it is surviving out at sea.

15:30 But you gotta remember, a lot of these belugas have never been to sea before. They've never been in the open ocean. They may not know how to eat on their own, hunt on their own. They may be required, have care, right? These belugas have been raised in captivity and have been fed by hand for a very, very long time. And so they may not be able to survive on their own and they may require that care. And to be honest, all of this is new. It's an experiment to release captive whales, especially those who have won, haven't been out in the Ocean ever. 'cause they've been born in captivity or if they were in captivity and they were caught for a while. They haven't been back in a long time, which is usually the case for some of these older orcas.

16:11 In this case with Marineland, we just don't even know if they're healthy enough to do anything with. So some advocates are saying, Hey, you know what? Why don't we just keep them here? Like, why don't we just keep 'em into Marineland, keep 'em like the best care possible until they eventually all pass away. It's sad no matter what you do. If you get them up and you move them down to the US, it's sad. If you export them to China, which is not gonna happen, it's sad because they're going into another entertainment and they're going into a breeding kind of life, and that's not one a life that we wanna see for these belugas or any captive whale. And then, you know, if they go to a sanctuary, they may die on the way there. They may not do well in there. Unfortunately we're in a situation where no answer is easy. There are hard opinions on every single side, including the ones who just want them to stay in Marineland, where they are, and just live out their last days being taken care of the best they possibly can.

17:00 And that could be like, they could survive for another year. They could survive for another 10 years. We just don't know. And so it's not an easy answer no matter how we look at it. And so there's options out there. We'll see like which options come to fruition. And unfortunately, we're just gonna have to live with the consequences of those options, whether they're good and hopefully. They are good or whether they're bad, and that's just the way it's gonna have to go. But again, I would love to hear your opinion on this 'cause this is the beginning of a conversation that I would love for you to continue. Let me know in the comments below if you're watching this on YouTube. And again, if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app, audio style. I love the audio. Go to speak up for blue.com/feedback and let me know what you think.

17:41 You can either type it in there or leave me a voicemail. I would love to hear what you think. Let me know in the comments below or at speak up for blue.com/feedback. That's the episode for today. I wanna thank you so much for listening. I wanna thank you so much for trying to get more information on oceans and, you know, whale captivity and what's gonna happen with these whales. We're at a very interesting crossroads with what to do with these whales and I don't know if there's a good answer, to be honest. I really don't know, but I'd love to hear your opinion. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the True Nords Strong and Free. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.