BBC News
The uncertain future of two whales killer is not closer to solving Despite the closure of the seafood zoo two months ago.
Wikie, 23, and her 11-year-old son Keijo, are still stored in Marineland Antibes, located in southern France, after closed in January because of the upcoming laws for banning the use of orcs in the shows.
For months, managers at Marineland tried to send whales killers to other sea zoo, but this has angry campaigns to protect animals who want to be located in the shrine, where orcs will not have to perform or use for cultivation.
The orcs were expected to go to another sea zoo in Spain when the French government rejected the transition to a proposed refuge in Canada a few weeks ago.
But now Agni Pannier-Runacher, a French ecology minister, said he would talk to colleagues from Spain, Italy and Greece about how to create a different shrine together. However, her proposal has several other details and has been criticized.
The Ministry of Ecology, when asked by the BBC, had no further information on where the sanctuary could be or who would finance its construction and current costs.
Loro Parque, a sea zoo in Spain who wants to receive whales from Marineland, said the BBC this week that the current proposal is “completely inappropriate” and are best positioned for caring for them.
Christoph Kiessling, Vice President of the Tenerife facility, said that whale shrines “are currently unable to satisfy the complex physiological, social and environmental needs of” the killer whale.
Most design includes bay cordonation and employment employment to provide Wikie and Keijo – who were born in captivity and cannot be released into the wild – they were properly fed and caring.
Kiessling said such a solution could be possible if there were more extensive research and planning, but “such a process could last for years, leaving two Marineland [orcas] In a wounded object. “
The campaigns point out that several Orka died in Loro Parque in the last few years, including three between March 2021 and September 2022.
Managers in the Zoo said that the scientific examination of these orks at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University showed that death were inevitable.
They also fear that Wikie can be used for growing. Loro Parque announced in January that Morgan, the only female of three orcs that are currently being held there, is pregnant.
Katheryn Wise, from a charity animal protection, said Loro Parque was ultimately a fun job used by Orcas to make money.
She added, “Morgan’s pregnancy emphasizes the fact that Loro Parque could never be a suitable option for Wikie and Keijo and should be removed as an option.”
Marineland, who is still paying to orcs, said that the transition to Loro Parque was as soon as possible in the best interest of the benefits of animals. They asked the Ministry of Ecology to approve the transfer.
‘Water is too warm for orcs’
The whale shrine in Canada signed up for the French government to be handed over to Orcas last year, but their offer was rejected in January.
They were told that the place they chose in the new Scotland was too far and that the water was too cold there for Wikie and Keijo, who spent all their lives in southern France.
Following the proposal of Pannier-Runacher for refuge in Europe, which she announced two weeks ago in a video on Instagram, the directors of the discarded Canadian projects criticized the idea that one was being built in the Mediterranean.
They wrote to her a letter quoted by Dr. David Perciñán, a diplomat at the European Faculty of Zoo, who said: “The origin of Wikie and Keijoa is Iceland. These two orcs do not belong to ecotypes seen in the Mediterranean.”
He added: “The possibility of building a shrine for them in the Mediterranean is probably the worst of the possible options.”
The directors also said, unlike the European proposal, their shrine was ready to start construction because the design was already completed.
Other animal rights groups are more welcome to the Pannier-Runacher’s announcement, saying that the European Sanctuary will continue to be better for the benefit of the orcs than life in another seagrass Zoo.
Sea Shepherd, Marine Conservation Society, replied to the Minister on Instagram, saying that this is an opportunity to achieve what the Zoo industry calls “impossible” – the Ocean Sanctuary building where trapped orcs can enjoy the rest of their lives.
Pannier-Runacher said in his video that she was consciously aware of the strong feelings that people had about where Wikie and Keijo should be repeated.
She did not exclude them to Loro Parque or other sea zoo, only to “oppose any transfer to a place that is not suitable for accommodation” Orcas.
Last November, she blocked Marineland’s report to send whales killer whales to the sea zoo in Japan, citing regulations on the benefits of animals in the country.
‘The Year of the Sea’ is currently underway in France, a government initiative to raise awareness of the importance of the ocean, and Pannier-Runarher believes that the creation of a European whale sanctuary would be submitted.
“I’m not telling you it will succeed,” she told Instagram users. “But nothing dares, nothing has gained.”
