End clap for the orcas and dolphins of Marineland Antibes

After more than fifty years of existence, the Marineland of Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) definitively closed its doors to the public on Sunday, with the last show of its orcas, Wikie and Keijo, victim of the disaffection of the public but also of the legislation banning cetacean shows.

“Our hearts are in pieces. » Like Salomé Mathis, a young caregiver who came to say goodbye to her ex-colleagues at the water park, visitors and employees expressed their dismay. “We don’t yet realize that these animals are going to be separated and taken very far away,” says sadly in front of the sea lion pool, the 23-year-old young woman, who left to work today in another animal park, the African Safari in Toulouse. .

Hugging one of her former colleagues, she cannot help but burst into tears under the occasional drizzle in the middle of the installations of what was, for years, the flagship attraction of the Côte d’Azur, with up to one and a half million visitors per year.

“We could have evolved differently”

“I understand that it is closing with the drop in attendance, but I am disappointed because we could have evolved differently,” laments Jérémy Lo Vasco, 34, a keeper for ten years in this park which presented itself as the first marine zoo in Europe and employed 103 permanent staff and some 500 seasonal workers. “For the moment, we are not thinking about our own fate because our priority is that the animals are well, but the blow will come later. »

He evokes a “snowball effect” with the floods of 2015 which drowned the site, the release of the film “Blackfish” denouncing the captivity of cetaceans, the demonstrations of opponents and the evolution of the public and finally the Covid. So many events which have undermined attendance at the park and led its owner, the Spanish group Parques Reunidos, to announce its definitive closure, with only fun activities to be retained during the summer season.

“We’re attached to it”

The final blow was given by the law of November 30, 2021 which bans shows with orcas or dolphins from the end of 2026. However, according to the park management, 90% of visitors, increasing in ten years from 1.2 million to 425,000 per year, came for these performances.

“It’s a world that amazed me, (…), by coming back here regularly we become attached to it,” explains Jade Ronda, 20, a real estate employee who had recently discovered the park and fell in love with it. in love.

At the ticket office, where more than a thousand tickets had been sold before noon – the crowd usually reached in summer – the employee preferred to remain silent. After 27 years at home, “psychologically, it’s hard,” she says. “All employees will benefit from individual support as part of the job protection plan. There are some, like dolphin caretakers, whose job will disappear,” says a management official who wishes to remain anonymous.

Uncertain fate for the two orcas

With her bags full of sweets, “Mamie Nougat”, as the park employees nicknamed her, came to distribute her sweets to the staff. “The shows are magnificent, you have to see this interaction between the caregivers and the animals, it’s fantastic,” already regrets the retiree from Nice, who came for the latter.

On Sunday, Wikie and Keijo, the last two orcas of Marineland, gave their final performance, to thunderous applause. The French authorities having refused their transfer to Japan, their future destination remains uncertain, just like that of the 4,000 other animals of 150 different species (dolphins, sea lions, turtles, fish, corals, etc.) which populate the park’s pools.