Huge Breakthrough for Wikie and Keijo in France

By Mark J. Palmer

Just when it looked like the last two captive orcas in France were to be flown to the Loro Parque Zoo in Spain, the Spanish government blocked the transfer.

“This is fantastic news for Wikie and Keijo,” stated David Phillips, Director of the International Marine Mammal Project at Earth Island Institute. He continued: “The Loro Parque facility would have been a disastrous outcome for these whales. We warned the French government that Loro Parque has a terrible record for whale mortalities and would have been a death sentence for these two whales.”

Today, the Spanish government’s scientific agency determined that Loro Parque failed to meet minimum standards for the welfare of orca whales. They indicated that the concrete tanks are too small, the water depth too shallow, and refused the transfer of Wikie and Keijo into the Spanish facility from their current tank in Marineland Antibes.

It should be noted that Loro Parque already has a number of orcas in their facility, but many others have died.

This decision required that the French Ministry cancel the permits for transferring the orcas to Spain. The two orcas now remain at the Marineland d’Antibes zoo in France, and Marineland must reluctantly care for the whales until a suitable alternative is determined.

“We have been strong advocates for the past year that these two orcas should be relocated to a seaside sanctuary, which would be larger, in natural sea water, and save them from repetitive performances in concrete tanks,” said Phillips.

“While the French Ministry has stated a preference for a sanctuary in the EU, we believe that the whale sanctuary being developed in Nova Scotia is a very viable alternative that was previously chosen as the best option by the French Ministry’s Inspector General’s Report.”

“Orcas don’t belong in concrete tanks; they belong in the ocean,” Phillips added.

“The Spanish government deserves credit for stopping the relocation into the dangerous, unsafe tanks of Loro Parque Zoo,” Phillips concluded.

See link to AFP – Agence France Presse/Barron's article here.