Stranded orcas, dolphins left in rotting tanks in closed French marine park

The two orcas, a mother and son named Wikie and Keijo. were born and raised in captivity, meaning they would not survive in the wild.

A pair of killer whales and a dozen dolphins have been trapped for four months in Marineland, a shuttered marine park in the south of France, after the facility announced its closure in January 2025. They were left in what animal activists are calling “dangerous” and “despairing” conditions as they scramble to relocate the abandoned mammals.

(The full name of the park is Marineland of Antibes, and is not affiliated with the Niagara Falls, Ont., Marineland.)

Aerial footage released by the animal activist group TideBreakers shows two abandoned orcas, Wikie, 23, and her son, Keijo, 11, swimming aimlessly around an algae-ridden enclosure.

“The mother and son remain trapped there, waiting for their fate in crumbling tanks,” TideBreakers wrote alongside the footage.

The park, which is located in the southern coastal town of Antibes on the French Riviera, about 45 km west of Monaco, has been closed to the public since January, and is also home to 12 dolphins that have been “left to rot,” the group said.

The facility was forced to close as a result of French legislation passed in 2021 that prohibits the use of dolphins and whales for entertainment purposes.

“While 90 per cent of visitors choose to come to Marineland to admire the orca and dolphin performances, the law of November 30, 2021, banning cetacean shows, requires Marineland to consider this closure,” the company wrote in a statement in December.