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Marineland Canada Shuts Down: The Beluga Whale Rescue Begins · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  This week we saw the end of Marineland Canada.
• 0:04
  If you're not familiar, Marineland Canada is a marine theme park in Canada.
• 0:09
  It's in Niagara Falls, Ontario, just about 45 minutes away from me where I live.
• 0:13
  I grew up going to this Marineland or watching the commercials.
• 0:17
  We only went a couple of times, but watching the commercials where they're
• 0:20
  saying, "Everyone loves Marineland."
• 0:22
  But not anymore, because it is officially going to shut down.
• 0:26
  The last part of them shutting down was to move a number of beluga
• 0:30
  whales that were in dire straits.
• 0:33
  They are sick.
• 0:33
  There's a bad water quality.
• 0:35
  The park couldn't take care of them anymore.
• 0:37
  And now six of them are being moved to different marine
• 0:41
  aquariums throughout the US.
• 0:44
  And so we're gonna talk a little bit about that on today's episode of the How to
• 0:47
  Protect the Ocean podcast, ' cause it's big news, and we come here for big news.
• 0:51
  I am here to update you on all things that have to do with the ocean, especially
• 0:55
  science and conservation, and this falls under the conservation part of it.
• 0:59
  We talk ocean every Monday through Friday.
• 1:01
  That's what we do.
• 1:02
  We enjoy talking about that.
• 1:03
  And I inform you, you answer back on TikTok and on Instagram, and you
• 1:08
  can DM me and all that fun stuff, and we can have conversations.
• 1:11
  So this is where we start the conversation.
• 1:12
  If you enjoy that kind of stuff, follow the podcast if
• 1:15
  you haven't followed it already.
• 1:16
  But also, if you enjoy it so much that you wanna support me in all the work that
• 1:20
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• 1:24
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• 1:28
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• 1:30
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• 1:35
  That's speakupforblue.com/patreon.
• 1:39
  Let's get into this.
• 1:40
  Let's talk about, how did we even get here?
• 1:43
  Because this is something that has been in the works for a while.
• 1:47
  I started talking about the Marineland moving or wanting to move these
• 1:52
  belugas away from Marineland, because they couldn't take care, they
• 1:55
  couldn't afford taking care of them.
• 1:56
  If they couldn't take care of them, they were gonna have to euthanize them,
• 1:59
  which is preposterous, to be honest.
• 2:00
  Like, it's ridiculous to even think about this.
• 2:02
  But they were gonna move them to an aquarium in China.
• 2:06
  And this is where everything kinda like made headlines and things like that.
• 2:09
  We couldn't do that, and there's a number of reasons for that.
• 2:11
  But first I wanna kinda go through what Marineland is all about.
• 2:14
  Where did we go and where did we get here?
• 2:17
  So I got a bit of a timeline to go through of everything that's happened, and then
• 2:20
  we're gonna dive deep into some of the stuff that's happened most recently.
• 2:23
  So in 1961, John Haller founds Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
• 2:27
  29 different killer whales have lived there over the
• 2:30
  decades, with 11 born on site.
• 2:32
  In the 1980s, we saw protests begin.
• 2:35
  So a former teenage employee named Frank, having seen firsthand how
• 2:39
  animals were treated, becomes one of the earliest public critics, inspiring
• 2:42
  protests that continue for decades.
• 2:45
  Marineland later purchases the Green Oaks Trailer Park in 2004, and by 2009,
• 2:50
  forty-seven neighboring families receive eviction notices as part of the park's
• 2:53
  expansion, adding to the local land use grievance to the animal welfare one.
• 2:58
  So it's adding to all these different protests.
• 3:00
  By the 1990s and early 2000s, animal rights groups start raising alarms
• 3:04
  about enclosure size, animal behavior, and the ethics of keeping whales
• 3:09
  and dolphins for entertainment.
• 3:10
  These concerns are largely overshadowed by the park's popularity and its ubiquitous
• 3:14
  Everyone Loves Marineland ad campaign.
• 3:17
  Like I said, that jingle will be in my head forever because I watched so
• 3:21
  many commercials on it in the '90s.
• 3:22
  I was a teenager in the '90s, and even in the '80s when we heard these
• 3:25
  campaigns, I mean, it was crazy.
• 3:27
  It was just all over the place.
• 3:28
  In August, 2012, the Toronto Star did an exposé, and this is the
• 3:33
  real turning point before 2016 where we saw some charges laid.
• 3:37
  The Star interviewed eight former employees, most speaking anonymously,
• 3:41
  out of fear of legal retaliation.
• 3:43
  And they described five female dolphins swimming almost continuously in murky
• 3:47
  green water for eight months in 2011 to 2012, with skin falling off in
• 3:52
  chunks and their color darkening.
• 3:54
  Two sea lions repeatedly confined in dry cages, once for over two months
• 3:59
  to protect eyes already damaged by poor water quality, with footage reportedly
• 4:03
  showing them plunging in their heads into buckets of clean water for relief.
• 4:07
  Animals going blind due to poor water conditions and requiring treatments
• 4:11
  with antibiotics and Valium.
• 4:13
  And then baby beluga that died after being attacked by two adult males,
• 4:16
  allegedly because there wasn't enough staff to intervene in time.
• 4:20
  So this was all happening before we had a law go through that you can't
• 4:24
  have marine mammals in tanks anymore.
• 4:27
  So I think that's something that was really interesting.
• 4:29
  Now, the owner, as I mentioned, John Holler, and the park's veterinary director
• 4:32
  both flatly deny these allegations, with Holler stating, " We take care
• 4:36
  of the animals better than I would take care of myself." And this has been a
• 4:40
  huge contradictory thing that's been happening throughout captivity. There
• 4:45
  are people who are saying that the things that they see are just awful
• 4:48
  in certain aquariums, and other places saying, " Look, we treat our animals
• 4:51
  better than most children are treated in some parts of the US and some parts
• 4:55
  in Canada and some parts of the world."
• 4:56
  It goes back and forth, and it's really difficult to find out,
• 4:59
  like, what has been going on.
• 5:01
  And this is where Phil Demers enters as our whistleblower.
• 5:05
  So he was Marineland's head trainer and the walrus' Smooshie's primary handler.
• 5:09
  And The Star's 2012 investigation was partly what pushed him to go public.
• 5:14
  His specific allegations centered on the water quality.
• 5:17
  In September 2011, the park's water disinfection unit broke, forcing chlorine
• 5:22
  levels to be raised across pools housing Smooshi and other marine mammals.
• 5:26
  This allegedly caused chemical burns on Smooshi, which is a walrus, by
• 5:29
  the way, inflamed flippers and fur loss, and skin loss on sea
• 5:32
  lions isolated in these dry cages.
• 5:34
  Demers says that his call to move suffering animals to untreated
• 5:38
  water went unheeded by park leadership, and he quit in 2012.
• 5:42
  And then October 7th, 2012, one of the last days of the season, roughly 500
• 5:47
  protesters demonstrate outside the park.
• 5:49
  About 150 storm the gates chanting, "Shut it down." And then in 2013,
• 5:53
  Marineland sues Demers for $1.5 million, alleging he trespassed during a live
• 5:58
  show and plotted to steal Smooshy.
• 6:01
  And this is where he said that Smooshy actually imprinted on Phil, so he was
• 6:05
  depressed that Phil wasn't there anymore.
• 6:06
  And this was in what animal advocates characterized as a SLAPP suit,
• 6:10
  meaning, to silence a whistleblower.
• 6:12
  Demers countersues for defamation and abuse of process.
• 6:15
  This legal battle runs for nearly a decade until both sides drop it
• 6:19
  in 2022, with Marineland agreeing to rehouse Smooshy and her calf.
• 6:24
  In November 2016, the Ontario SPCA, the OSPCA, lays its first criminal
• 6:29
  charges against Marineland, 11 counts of animal cruelty involving
• 6:32
  land animals, black bears, elk, deer, guinea hens, and a peacock.
• 6:37
  The Crown later dropped all charges, citing insufficient chance of conviction,
• 6:41
  and then Marineland responds with a $21 million defamation suit against the OSPCA.
• 6:46
  So obviously, you know, this has been a contentious battle for quite
• 6:50
  a long time like, not only just from 2016, but from on, like, moving
• 6:53
  even before that into the '80s.
• 6:55
  And then in 2018, the founder, John Holler, passed away.
• 6:58
  His widow, Mary Holler, took over the ownership.
• 7:01
  In 2019, Canada passes Bill S-203, which is called the Free Willy Bill, banning
• 7:06
  the breeding, capture, and trade of whales and dolphins for entertainment.
• 7:10
  Marineland is grandfathered in since its animals were already in captivity,
• 7:14
  so it's allowed to keep operating.
• 7:16
  In 2020, Ontario's Animal Welfare Services launched a formal
• 7:19
  investigation into Marineland.
• 7:21
  And then the Animal Welfare Services in 2021, declares Marineland's marine mammals
• 7:26
  in considerable distress due to poor water quality and order system upgrades.
• 7:31
  That same year, five beluga whales are sold to Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.
• 7:35
  Three later died within two years.
• 7:38
  Marineland is also charged in twenty twenty-one for continuing to use
• 7:41
  whales and dolphins for entertainment.
• 7:43
  In March twenty twenty-three, Kiska, Marineland's last captive orca,
• 7:47
  dies, becoming a rallying symbol for the anti-captivity movement.
• 7:51
  In early twenty twenty-three, Marineland is put up for sale.
• 7:54
  In twenty twenty-three to twenty twenty-four, renewed OSPCA, charges over
• 7:59
  mistreatment of their three black bears result in a guilty verdict in March twenty
• 8:03
  twenty-four, with fines under provincial law by August twenty twenty-four.
• 8:06
  Now, in that summer of twenty twenty-four, Marineland closes to
• 8:09
  the public due to financial distress.
• 8:11
  The park had only opened for two months that year, with much of it closed
• 8:14
  and admissions sold at reduced rates.
• 8:16
  In September sixth, twenty twenty-four, Mary Haller dies, and is complicating
• 8:20
  the succession and future of the park.
• 8:23
  In October twenty twenty-five, Marineland applies to export
• 8:26
  its thirty remaining belugas to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China.
• 8:30
  Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson denies the permit, citing the twenty
• 8:33
  nineteen law and stating, " All whales belong in the ocean, not in
• 8:37
  tanks for entertainment purposes."
• 8:38
  Animal Justice praises the decision, noting Chimelong has an active
• 8:42
  breeding program and forces whales to perform, both illegal in Canada.
• 8:47
  On October 3rd, 2025, Marineland says it's running out of money
• 8:50
  and will have to kill 30 belugas without federal financial support.
• 8:54
  A source tells the CBC that Marineland plans to hand the whales
• 8:57
  to the government for euthanasia.
• 8:59
  And October, three days later, Thompson responds that Marineland's failure
• 9:02
  to plan for a viable alternative does not place the onus on the Canadian
• 9:06
  government to cover your expenses.
• 9:08
  So again, they're trying to get away with saying, " Hey, look, we just
• 9:10
  financially can't take care of it.
• 9:12
  We're just gonna euthanize them, or we're gonna hand them over to you
• 9:14
  guys to euthanize 'cause we don't have anything to do with them." I
• 9:16
  should also mention that the land that Marineland sits on let's just say it's
• 9:20
  very appealing for developers, and developers are ready to spend a big
• 9:24
  chunk of change to build golf courses and residences and all this kind of thing.
• 9:29
  We're in a housing crisis.
• 9:30
  This is gonna go for a lot of money when it's sold.
• 9:33
  So late in 2025, Marineland reportedly renews its euthanasia threat framing it
• 9:37
  as export or death if no deal is reached.
• 9:40
  Activists accuse the company of refusing to engage with proposals for
• 9:43
  a whale sanctuary off Nova Scotia.
• 9:45
  In January 2026, Canada conditionally approves export to the US.
• 9:50
  Marineland is in talks with four institutions: the Shedd Aquarium
• 9:52
  in Chicago, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and Mystic Aquarium
• 9:55
  in Connecticut and SeaWorld.
• 9:57
  In February 27th, 2026, CBC reports two sea lions relocated from Marineland to
• 10:02
  Vancouver, where there's an aquarium.
• 10:04
  And in June 2026, DFO endorses a final rescue plan, splitting the belugas
• 10:08
  between Oceanographic Valencia in Spain and four US locations, depending on
• 10:13
  final export permits and health checks.
• 10:15
  Now, with that said, with all that said, the move started this week.
• 10:19
  July 20th, we saw the move that began.
• 10:21
  Marineland shipped the first six belugas out on Monday.
• 10:25
  Four of them, named Siena, Acadia, Osiris, and Liouette went
• 10:29
  to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
• 10:30
  And two, Bertie Botts and Frankie, went to SeaWorld in San Antonio.
• 10:35
  And then it was said by Canada's fisheries minister, " The first wave
• 10:39
  of the rescue mission at Marineland is underway." And transport trucks were seen
• 10:43
  moving from Niagara Falls to the Toronto Pearson Airport that evening, with all
• 10:46
  six whales leaving on a single plane.
• 10:48
  So look They're out.
• 10:51
  They are, quote-unquote, "rescued." If they had stayed in those tanks,
• 10:55
  they would have died eventually.
• 10:57
  It's just the tanks were not in great condition.
• 11:00
  There was a lot of, like, overhead video of what they looked like.
• 11:03
  They were green.
• 11:05
  They were not in good shape.
• 11:06
  I'm not a vet.
• 11:07
  I don't know what the last vet health assessment was, but let's be
• 11:10
  honest, they were not gonna do well.
• 11:11
  They were not gonna last a long time ' cause the MarineLand just
• 11:13
  didn't have the money or the people to care for these animals.
• 11:17
  Now, my opinion on this, scientifically and ethically, if you own a marine
• 11:21
  theme park with whales or any kind of animals, doesn't matter if they're
• 11:24
  marine animals or they're land animals, insects, reptiles, it doesn't matter.
• 11:29
  You should have the ethical obligation and the legal obligation to take care of
• 11:34
  those animals to the best of your ability.
• 11:36
  I don't care if you're out of money.
• 11:37
  Take a loan.
• 11:38
  I don't care if you lose money on this.
• 11:39
  You have these animals that are in need of your care.
• 11:42
  Until you can find other places, legally other places and approved
• 11:46
  other places, you are on the hook to make sure that they have the best care
• 11:50
  in the world, and that is just it.
• 11:53
  So the fact that they just said, "Hey, look, if the government doesn't take
• 11:55
  them off our hands or send someone to take care of them, we are going
• 11:58
  to euthanize them, we're gonna kill them, ' cause we're just done with
• 12:01
  them." And now, as I said before, the money was there to buy the property.
• 12:04
  Once these animals are gone, this sale is gonna go through as fast
• 12:08
  as Superman running or The Flash.
• 12:10
  Like, let's be honest.
• 12:11
  It's gonna go fast ' cause it's very expensive land, and it's very wanted land.
• 12:15
  People want to buy it for housing and golf courses and everything.
• 12:18
  It's a very nice part of Ontario, so it's gonna be in there.
• 12:22
  Now, there's a lot of things that went in, and I'm gonna do a more of a
• 12:25
  mini doc on my YouTube channel, but I wanted to talk a little bit about
• 12:29
  the controversies that happened.
• 12:30
  So a lot of people are expressing their opinions, and I should say that there
• 12:33
  is a huge debate between anti-captivity people and for captivity people.
• 12:40
  And so they go at it a lot from a personal standpoint, from an online
• 12:44
  standpoint, like a lot of them don't like each other, a lot of them debate.
• 12:47
  Some debate like are scientists and they just think it is.
• 12:50
  They have their opinions, and I'm gonna tell you, the opinions are out these days.
• 12:53
  And some of the opinions are saying that, "Hey, look, this is what happens
• 12:58
  when you have a legislation that says you can't keep these animals anymore.
• 13:02
  You can't show them off for entertainment, you can't use them for entertainment, so
• 13:05
  there's no shows, there's no breeding.
• 13:07
  So nobody wants to come to the park and see these animals because
• 13:11
  they're not putting on a show.
• 13:12
  And so because of that, you're putting them in financial distress, and
• 13:15
  eventually they're gonna shut down, eventually they have to go somewhere."
• 13:18
  That's an interesting take.
• 13:19
  I get it from that standpoint, but the whole point of this was not to put
• 13:23
  them through the entertainment, the shows, because it wasn't good for them.
• 13:27
  From a scientific standpoint, a lot of people think, like this
• 13:29
  is not the way they should be.
• 13:31
  They should just be left alone.
• 13:32
  And to be honest, to go see an orca or a is phenomenal.
• 13:37
  A dolphin is phenomenal.
• 13:38
  They still need stimulation.
• 13:39
  There's other ways to do it, but a show was not allowed under the law.
• 13:42
  You're not allowed to breed them, you're not allowed to get new ones,
• 13:44
  you're not allowed to trade them, you're not allowed to sell them,
• 13:46
  you're not allowed to do anything.
• 13:47
  And with the initial move or wanting to move them to China, to the Ching
• 13:52
  Lung Aquarium, that wasn't a good move because, with a lot of the captivity that
• 13:55
  happens in China and Russia, we don't know what goes on behind the scenes.
• 13:58
  We don't have control.
• 13:59
  At least going to the US, you know they are treated better.
• 14:02
  And I think Mystic Aquarium was taken out.
• 14:05
  I've mentioned earlier this, they might have been one of the original landing
• 14:08
  spots for some of these belugas, 'cause there was like 30 some odd belugas.
• 14:10
  Mystic was actually taken out of the picture.
• 14:12
  They're under their own controversy right now.
• 14:15
  Shedd Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium, SeaWorld San Antonio, they have
• 14:18
  experience with keeping animals.
• 14:20
  I don't know their full history and controversies that go along
• 14:23
  other than just captivity.
• 14:24
  But I think we're in a situation right now here in Canada where we don't
• 14:28
  have the same population as we do in the US, and so you're not gonna get
• 14:31
  the same amount of people rolling through, you're not gonna get the
• 14:33
  same amount of money rolling through.
• 14:34
  It's very difficult to keep a marine park going, especially when you can't use for
• 14:37
  entertainment, completely understand that.
• 14:39
  But the whole purpose of this was not to have these animals in these tanks anymore.
• 14:42
  At least if you can't put them back in the ocean, for whatever reason, we'll
• 14:47
  talk about that in a second, then putting them in an aquarium where they're
• 14:50
  actually being able to take care of is better than their situation there.
• 14:54
  I think when we look at all of this, as dire and as much as I don't
• 14:58
  agree with captivity like whales in captivity and marine mammals in
• 15:01
  captivity, you have to do what's best for the animal at that point in time.
• 15:05
  Although it's stressful to move an animal, especially if that animal's sick,
• 15:07
  we don't know what their condition is.
• 15:09
  We know it's not perfect Moving them could kill them.
• 15:12
  We don't know.
• 15:13
  Putting them in the ocean, just in the ocean just without any kinda cages or any
• 15:17
  kinda taking, that could kill them, too.
• 15:19
  A lot of them are born in captivity.
• 15:21
  They have never fed on their own.
• 15:22
  They've never hunted on their own.
• 15:23
  They will depend on people to feed them even after they're in the wild.
• 15:28
  And so there needs to be more of that type of care when we go into the wild.
• 15:33
  So for instance, when Keiko, Free Willy, when it was released in
• 15:36
  Iceland, when it was put into a whale seaside sanctuary, it had full care.
• 15:40
  So people were still feeding it.
• 15:42
  It had veterinary care.
• 15:43
  They were doing assessments and everything like that.
• 15:45
  And until it passed away when they finally released it and it decided to go out
• 15:49
  on its own and eventually passed away.
• 15:50
  It was almost 30 years old, and it died.
• 15:53
  But regardless, it had full care for a long time.
• 15:56
  And so a lot of these animals may or probably will require full care
• 15:59
  until and if they ever decide to hunt on their own and they ever
• 16:02
  figure out hunting on their own.
• 16:03
  They may do it.
• 16:04
  We don't know.
• 16:04
  We have no idea if they're gonna do it or not, because all of them have been
• 16:07
  preconditioned and learnt at a young age that they can get food from humans,
• 16:12
  and that's all they get food from.
• 16:13
  They can't hunt on their own 'cause they've never tried hunting on their own.
• 16:15
  So there's a lot to go on there.
• 16:16
  And some people will ask, "Well, why didn't it go to the Whale
• 16:18
  Sanctuary Project?" That it had a location in Nova Scotia.
• 16:22
  They do have most of their permits.
• 16:24
  The one that I haven't seen is a permit from the federal government.
• 16:27
  They do have the provincial permit.
• 16:28
  I haven't seen federal permits, although the executive director, Lori Marino,
• 16:33
  from the Whales Sanctuary Project, did say on a Facebook post on the
• 16:36
  comments they had all of their permits.
• 16:38
  So with them saying they have all their permits, I don't see anything
• 16:40
  on the government website that they said that they issued those permits,
• 16:43
  but it doesn't mean they haven't.
• 16:44
  Lori's saying that they have, and so they would've had all their permits.
• 16:47
  What they didn't have is they they didn't raise the funds in time or had the funds
• 16:50
  to put in the infrastructure and construct the facility for these belugas if the
• 16:54
  belugas were deemed right for this area.
• 16:57
  There's no way they probably would've been able to fit 30 some odd belugas.
• 17:00
  I think it was 34 at the time.
• 17:01
  There was no way they would be able to fit that in that small area.
• 17:04
  They were still getting their permits.
• 17:05
  They didn't get it until October 2025.
• 17:07
  And then, of course, they haven't constructed anything.
• 17:09
  They haven't put the infrastructure in as far as I know at this time of recording.
• 17:12
  So there's a lot that was still going on there.
• 17:14
  They still need to raise funds.
• 17:16
  I still think they're planning on doing, on raising funds.
• 17:18
  They may get those funds, and when they do, if they get all their
• 17:21
  permits and they say they have all their permits, they can start
• 17:23
  construction, and we'll see what happens.
• 17:25
  But it's gonna require ongoing funding, and we don't know where that
• 17:28
  ongoing funding is gonna come from.
• 17:30
  Private donors?
• 17:31
  Is it gonna come from the Canadian government?
• 17:32
  Is it gonna come from taxpayer money?
• 17:34
  We don't know.
• 17:35
  I don't know if people wanna do that.
• 17:37
  Is it gonna come from people, like, who owned MarineLand before or who owned
• 17:41
  marine theme parks as a penance to what they have done or what they haven't done?
• 17:45
  I have no idea.
• 17:46
  I feel like that's maybe a good idea in the future, but who knows?
• 17:49
  I feel like some of the money that's made from the land that was sold in Marineland
• 17:52
  should go to the care of those beluga whales and any of the sea lions as
• 17:55
  well that were there, because I think that's really important to make sure
• 17:58
  that they're cared for for the rest of their lives, like for the rest of these
• 18:01
  animals' lives, wherever they end up.
• 18:03
  But that's the situation right now.
• 18:05
  That's what we're going with.
• 18:06
  I'll keep you updated in another show.
• 18:07
  I'm working on a mini doc right now to talk about the captivity, anti-captivity,
• 18:11
  and all of the stuff that's going on.
• 18:13
  And we'll have visuals and everything like that.
• 18:14
  So let's just see where that goes from there.
• 18:17
  Hopefully it'll be out in the next couple of months as things
• 18:19
  develop and we get interviews done.
• 18:21
  Until next time, I'd love to hear what you think.
• 18:23
  Like, what are your thoughts on this?
• 18:24
  No judgment whether you're anti-captivity or for captivity.
• 18:26
  No judgment here.
• 18:27
  I would just love your thoughts on this whole process and what's happening in
• 18:31
  Marineland Canada and how these belugas are being divided up into US aquariums.
• 18:35
  So I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
• 18:37
  My socials are in the show notes.
• 18:38
  And of course, if you want to support the show, you can go
• 18:41
  to speakupforblue.com/patreon.
• 18:44
  Link is also in the show notes.
• 18:46
  And I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
• 18:48
  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 18:49
  Have a great day.
• 18:50
  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.