Operations to transfer eight of the 12 dolphins from Marineland in Antibes to a zoo in Malaga, in the south of Spain, began on Wednesday July 22, animal rights associations announced.
Several associations, including Sea Shepherd France, which sees their departure as a betrayal of the 2021 law prohibiting the keeping of cetaceans in captivity, and TideBreakers, which considered their departure as the only way to ensure their survival after the closure of the park in January 2025, have released images of the operations. We see several dolphins placed in flexible stretchers and carried using a crane into large trucks equipped for transporting live animals.
According to the associations, the eight dolphins were loaded and the trucks headed to Nice airport, very close to Marineland, to fly to Malaga. In the future, these eight dolphins could return to France in a planned reception center at the Beauval zoo.
In a press release, the One Voice association denounced “a state scandal, a shame orchestrated by money and a high-risk trip for animals whose safety is not guaranteed”. Contacted, Marineland management did not immediately confirm the departure. During the day on Wednesday, she announced that for security reasons, she would only communicate once the transfer had been completed. However, she had confirmed a plan to transfer at night to avoid the extreme heat.
The four remaining dolphins are then due to leave for a park in Valencia, in eastern Spain, while the two orcas from Marineland could go to the Loro Parque in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Their departure, announced for June, was delayed by several months due to ongoing discussions within the Spanish park, according to Marineland management.
