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Marineland Beluga Export Denied: What Happens Next for Canada's Captive Whales · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Can a Canadian marine theme park called Marineland Getaway with euthanizing 30
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  of its beluga whales after being denied a permit to ship 'em off to China.
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  That's the big question we're gonna be talking about today because
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  it is a big controversial thing.
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  You know, the government that refused the permit has been getting
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  blamed for refusing the permit because marine land is threatening
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  that they'll have to do euthanasia.
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  So they'll have to actually, you know, put them down.
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  but is this really the question here?
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  Should they not be mandated that marine land that is mandated to be taking care
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  of these marine mammals as they purchase.
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  Park a number of years ago.
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  We're gonna be talking about the law.
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  We're gonna be going over why it's important from an ethical standpoint,
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  and we're gonna talk about some of the options that Marine Land has and the
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  government has in making sure that these animals are taken care of for the future.
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  That's on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  Let's start the show.
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  Hey everybody.
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  Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find
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  out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean,
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  and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action.
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  Now, today's episode, we're gonna be talking about quite a controversial topic.
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  Now it's controversial because it has to do with marine mammals in captivity.
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  Now there are two sides.
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  To the captivity argument.
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  There's a side where people think that it's okay to keep
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  marine mammals in captivity.
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  And they say it's good for entertainment and education purposes as long as
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  the animals are being taken care of.
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  The other option is like the other argument side.
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  The argument is.
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  No marine mammals should be in captivity.
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  They should be out free.
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  And those that are in captivity should have a plan to put them
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  free at some point in time.
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  Now, the big argument against putting them out into, say, like a whale seaside
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  sanctuary, like the Whale Sanctuary Project is doing is that these animals,
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  a lot of them have been born in captivity and they're not used to the, you know,
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  the wild and they're not used to the ocean and there's a lot of diseases
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  and bacteria that they're not used to.
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  They're not used to feeding for themselves and so forth.
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  And that's a big deal to a lot of people that everybody wants to make sure that
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  the marine mammals are treated properly.
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  And the argument for those whale seaside sanctuaries is the fact
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  that no matter what, at some point these animals should taste freedom.
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  They should be able to be taken care of.
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  You know, if they're already used to being fed on a regular basis, they still get
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  that care to be fed, but they're allowed to roam around in a larger seaside pen.
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  There's an opening that you can open.
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  There's a great example of caco, you know, free Willie, that orca that was let
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  free up in Iceland eventually passed away.
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  I think it was like six to 10 years later.
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  I didn't a whole episode.
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  I'll try and find it and link to it below, but there's a lot of
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  controversy around it, and it's just because there's the each side says.
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  The science says that it's better to keep them either captive
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  or keep them outta captivity.
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  Everything is new when it comes to out of captivity, but you'll see both sides.
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  The goal that I'm trying to do right now is present to you.
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  You know, just the options that are happening and sort
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  of what actually happened.
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  So just a couple of days ago, last week, really, there are 30 marine mammals,
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  belugas that are in captivity, in Marineland, which is in Niagara Falls,
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  Canada, not too far down the road from me.
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  So I've been following this story quite closely over the last number of years.
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  Now, over the last five, maybe even 10 years, Marineland has been
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  under controversy because it hasn't been taking care of its whales.
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  Very well.
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  The orca passed away.
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  A bunch of beluga whales have passed away.
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  Those that they've transferred around or out of the park
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  have died after the transfer.
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  It's because the water quality's not great.
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  There's been a number of inspections by the Ontario government, the provincial
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  government, where the marine park is, like where marine land is, as well
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  as since that time, there's been an act passed to protect marine mammals
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  from captivity in that you are not allowed to import or export any marine
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  mammals without any kind of permit.
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  And so this year, the park wasn't open.
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  It didn't open at all as it did last year.
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  And so they weren't making a lot of money or weren't making any money at
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  all from people coming to the park.
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  And even though Li tens was going down anyway, and they weren't able to take
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  care just as usual, they haven't been able to take care of these 30 beluga
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  whales, which they have left over.
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  And so they wanted to get rid of them and put them in a marine park in China.
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  Now marine parks in Asia are blowing up.
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  That means they're popping up all over the place and we're seeing them everywhere.
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  There is a concern on the US Canadian side and advocate side, even in
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  Europe, because we don't know how animals are treated in China.
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  We've seen some really bad treatments of animals in the past, marine
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  mammals as well as other mammals.
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  We've seen polar bears be stuck in a mall, like in a little box essentially,
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  and not having a lot of Not a lot of stuff to, you know, provide enrichment
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  in that area or movement in that area.
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  So a lot of people are concerned, a lot of advocates for the anti captivity
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  advocates are worried that if we ship a lot of these belugas, offer all
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  these belugas off to China, we'll never see or hear from them again.
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  They'll be put back into entertainment positions where there'll be pet or
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  You know, they'll have one-on-ones with people, which is not good for
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  them as well as this is according to them and according to the science.
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  It's not good for them overall to be in shows.
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  The whole point of the Protection Act here in Canada was to make
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  sure that they aren't bred and they aren't put into positions where
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  they are gonna be for entertainment.
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  And so there's research permissions, they're allowed, and we'll
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  go through that in a second.
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  but there's a lot of worry about that.
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  So what happened was Marine Land applied for a permit to export it
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  based on this new protection act.
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  And they got denied by the Fisheries Oceans Canada because they were
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  like, this is against what we want.
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  We don't want these animals to go into captivity forever, and so we need to find
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  something that is different for that.
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  And so that's what they're looking for Now is a different avenue towards making
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  these animals free or devoid of having to do entertainment or any kind of theme
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  park related show or even breeding.
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  So.
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  That's where we're at right now.
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  And now because the application got denied, the marine land is like, well,
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  We can't afford to take care of this.
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  So either provide us funding so we can take care of these animals,
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  or we might have to lean towards euthanization, which is basically
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  putting these animals down one by one, all 30 of them Now that's blown up.
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  The government of Canada.
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  who gives the permits, so whether it's Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
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  is taking a lot of flack from people.
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  'cause nobody wants to see these animals die for no reason.
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  Just the fact that they can't take care of it.
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  And I've had a couple of people ask me some questions.
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  I was at a dinner last night, somebody asked me questions about it and I
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  was like, nobody's actually said, Hey, Marine Land owns these animals.
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  It is up to them.
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  It is the ethical nature of people who own, or companies who own these marine
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  parks to take care of their animals.
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  They haven't been taking care of these animals.
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  At all.
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  And the risk you take when you have these animals knowing what's coming and the
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  new laws that's in place and everything is that you still have to take care of
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  these animals, even if you're shut down, even if you're not getting any income
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  in your ethical, I guess, mandate is to take care of these animals at the
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  best health as possible, meaning they are fully healthy and not in degraded
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  water quality, which is what we're finding them in over the last 10 years.
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  That's a big problem that I have with it.
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  That's a huge thing of what we are looking at before.
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  So a lot of people are like, okay, so what happens now?
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  What are these animals going to be, you know, killed?
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  Are they gonna be euthanized?
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  What do we do?
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  So the first thing is, here's the federal framework.
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  You have the captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act.
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  It was established in 2019, so it was amended to the criminal code.
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  The Fisheries Act and an act called, the acronym is wata,
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  I think is what it's called.
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  It's a pretty long one.
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  I'll, look for it if I have it, but it's a pretty big one.
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  and so that's what we're looking at.
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  So we're also looking at capturing any new citations or breeding are
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  prohibited with limited exceptions.
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  Trade requires permits and must meet strict welfare, scientific standards.
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  So just to take it back a number of years before COVID, I think it was like five
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  beluga whales were transferred over down into Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.
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  Now, with those animals that were transferred, many of them passed away.
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  I think maybe all of all, but one, and maybe all of them passed away when they,
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  by the time, like maybe three or four months after they got to mystic Aquarium.
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  It wasn't necessarily Mystic Aquarium's problem.
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  But the problem is, is the way that the assessment was done is marine land.
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  Veterinarians look over the belugas and then mystic looks
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  over the belugas as well, and they deem, oh yeah, these are healthy.
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  And then we're gonna go through.
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  But there's a conflict of interest there.
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  There's no third party veterinarian that's saying, Hey, you know what,
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  there's actually a problem here.
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  We're gonna call both of you out because you guys, you know,
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  mystic just wanted the belugas.
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  The marine land just wanted to get rid of the belugas and they
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  want to get money for that.
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  So, you know, there's obviously a problem there that needs to
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  be solved at some point in time.
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  And so I want to make sure that we got that out there, like that history.
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  And so those animals ended up dying.
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  There's obviously a problem with that.
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  And so now these new laws and permits, people are gonna be more strict because
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  we don't want these animals dying in the transfer plus everything with
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  China that we don't know what happens.
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  We're not familiar with the laws.
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  We know what they do with marine theme parks, but still kind of, we're not too,
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  too familiar with what's happening or I'm not too familiar with what's happening.
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  So there's a bit of a worry about these animals going across the world to go
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  to China and be put in entertainment situations, put in breeding situations,
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  and we're not allowed to do that.
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  So why are we letting other countries do it as well to the
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  marine mammals that were found here.
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  Now, when you put them back out into the ocean, into whale seaside sanctuaries.
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  That's a possibility.
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  but we just don't know where.
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  It's never been done before, or it hasn't been done in a long time.
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  there's actually a story of a beluga whale in Russia that either escaped or
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  got let go in a pen and actually interacts with fishers in Bo in like in Russia.
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  And we'll actually go fetch a ball and do all these tricks and stuff like that.
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  That survived.
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  So there's a little bit of an anecdotal evidence that says, Hey, you know what?
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  These animals could survive out at sea, but we just don't know.
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  So that's the thing.
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  So here are the options that are next.
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  I wanted you guys to get that information so.
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  Marineland can submit a new, narrowly tailored transfer plan
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  that meets the federal Welfare Test.
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  So DFO Signal, it would consider proposals under the Fisheries Act.
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  It's a compliant plan would need to show that any transfer is clearly
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  in the animal's best interest, not for the entertainment or breeding.
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  And that the destination meets high welfare standards with
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  independent veterinary oversight and lifetime care guarantees.
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  Potential candidates include US accredited facilities or non entertainment research
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  and rehab settings subject to both Fisheries Act and Society permits.
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  Cities is like a trade, a convention trade of animals across different, like certain
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  animals can't go across certain borders
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  You know, without being considered or without being managed properly.
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  Now the government assisted placement in North America, there
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  could be government assistance.
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  So Ottawa and Ontario, the province where marine land is where I live
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  could coordinate with accredited aquariums or sanctuaries that could
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  take some of the animals possibly in phases with monitored transport
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  and individualized welfare plans.
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  Ontario's paw, PAWS Powers, could be used to enforce interim care
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  standards or appoint custodians if the distress thresholds are met.
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  So there are ways that we can do it.
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  From Canada and Ontario to actually put people in place that
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  will take care of this and offer some funding that will do that.
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  There's also interim stabilization funding tied with strict conditions.
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  So temporary public support is possible as a bridge, but expect the third party
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  management escrow funds restricted to feed medical care, water systems,
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  enrichment, and daily veterinary coverage.
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  Plus transparent reporting.
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  So Marineland has publicly asked for federal help, which creates space
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  for a conditional arrangement while permanent placements are arranged.
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  You can also transfer to the C pen sanctuary when ready.
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  Now the sanctuary is not ready yet.
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  It's taken a while to put together.
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  obviously it's very, very new.
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  Within the taking out of captive animals.
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  And it was more designed for orcas at this point.
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  so having that, I don't see it happening anytime soon.
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  I would like to see at least some of those animals go out and just as a, pilot study.
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  some people are not too happy about it.
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  Some people are happy about it.
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  It's a bit of controversial, but.
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  Really, we won't know until we start letting some of those animals
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  go to those seaside sanctuaries.
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  so that'll be interesting to see.
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  Now, as I said before, these animals could be fed by caretakers
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  and taken care of managed.
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  They're not just gonna be let go, and that's the end of them, and
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  that's the last time we'll see it unless they're ready to do so.
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  Now, provincial enforcement can also be put in up to a seizure and
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  custodianship if distress is critical.
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  So if inspectors determine that there's critical distress.
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  The Pause Act of Ontario allows intervention, including removing animals
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  or mandating care by a third party.
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  I can't see the removal of animals at this point, but I
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  can see a third party coming in.
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  This could be triggered by a failure to provide food, veterinary
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  care, or safe water systems.
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  Now, I assume that a lot of these places aren't going to allow euthanasia,
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  but the last one is euthanasia only for legitimate medical reasons.
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  So humane euthanasia belongs to veterinary decisions for individual
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  animals with intractable suffering.
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  These animals aren't suffering necessarily.
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  They're suffering because of their water quality conditions,
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  but that can be improved.
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  So euthanasia is probably the last case scenario.
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  And because it makes headlines and it triggers, you know, clicks, I
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  think that's being used a lot and it's scaring the hell out of people.
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  So that's where we're at really is with these animals.
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  It looks like the government's gonna step in.
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  They're gonna put people in place that can happen, that can make this happen a little
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  easier and take care of these animals.
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  The biggest thing, like at, at very least, these animals should
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  remain in captivity and being taken care of until they, they pass.
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  That's probably the safest thing for them Now.
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  Not my opinion, but I'm sure that's what a lot of people are thinking, just because
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  we don't know how the transfer's gonna go.
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  However, it would be more ideal, in my opinion, my scientific opinion, to
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  put them out, or at least some of them out in a pilot study into the whale
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  seaside sanctuary that is actually being deemed in the coast of Nova Scotia.
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  Will that be ideal waters for them?
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  Not really, because there haven't really been belugas in those areas,
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  but at least they'll be monitored.
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  By a team that can care, that can feed, that can look after its medical stability.
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  And so that will be really helpful.
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  So that's it for today's episode.
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  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
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  Do you think that these animals should be released out to the ocean, into
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  these whale seed size sanctuaries?
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  Do you think they should be kept where they are or do you agree
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  that they should go to China?
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  I would love to hear your opinion.
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  Let me know in the comments below if you're watching this on YouTube or
• 13:46
  you can let me know through email.
• 13:48
  Just go to speak up for blue.com/contact, fill out the form.
• 13:52
  It goes right to my email.
• 13:53
  If you want to connect me right away, you can do so through dms on
• 13:56
  Instagram at how to protect the ocean, that's at how to protect the ocean.
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  That's it for today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  Have a great day.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the True North Strong and Free.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.