Officials at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ont., told a CBC reporter this week that “no final decision” has been made on opening the park this summer.
The reporter noted that the attraction’s main phone number wasn’t working, its Facebook page was taken down and its website made no mention of its reopening date.
Marineland’s future operations have been clouded by a federal law passed in 2019 and a provincial law dating from 2015 that ban the sale, breeding and captivity of whales, according to the Guardian. The effect of the ban means that while Marineland’s existing cetacean population can remain at the park, no new whales can be acquired.
The deaths of its founder, John Holer, in 2018 and his wife, Marie, in 2024 have also cast the park’s future into uncertainty. While it opened last year to the public, its operating season was shortened, fewer rides were open and some animal exhibits were shuttered.
Public opposition to the use of captive animals has also contributed to a decline in visitors.
The CBC reported that Ontario’s Animal Welfare Services has been investigating Marineland for five years, visiting the park more than 200 times since 2020.
Eighteen beluga whales, one killer whale and one dolphin have died at Marineland since late 2019 — including one beluga earlier this year.
Kiska, a killer whale at Marineland and the last captive orca in Canada who had swam alone in her tank for more than a decade, died in 2023.
Last month, Marineland sold one of its properties that included an office building down the road from the main park to a numbered corporation for more than $2.7 million, according to the CBC.
Tom Richardson, a lawyer who represents Marineland, said at a public meeting in February that it needs the money to continue funding park operations and eventually move its animals, including more than two dozen beluga whales, as well as bears and deer.
The CBC also reported that in March, a consultant for Marineland, Andrew Burns, registered as a lobbyist to “communicate with government officials” about obtaining permits to trade endangered species internationally and export cetaceans, a classification of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins.