Overview
- Wikie and her son Keijo remain the final orcas in France at the closed Marineland Antibes, where activist footage shows algae-coated pools and degraded water with only a skeleton team feeding them.
- Marineland’s management says the whales must leave now, describing the transfer as extremely urgent for welfare reasons.
- The French government has rejected a proposed move to Japan and ruled out transfers to Spain’s Loro Parque after the Spanish Scientific Authority and an expert panel found the enclosures would not meet minimum size and depth requirements.
- In December 2025, officials backed relocating the pair to the Whale Sanctuary Project site in Nova Scotia, a plan contingent on Marineland’s consent and logistics, with the facility still under development.
- A 2021 law bans cetacean shows and sets a December 2026 relocation deadline, and discussions with European counterparts include Italy’s Taranto sanctuary project, which authorities say could be ready within a year.