With the busy summer tourist season in the Niagara, Ontario cataracts, weeks away, Marineland says he has not yet decided if he will open this year.
The besieged Aquarius told CBC Hamilton in an email on Tuesday “a final decision has not been made.”
“As Marineland has repeatedly declared publicly, we continue to actively participate in a sales process and the transition to a new property,” said Marketing Department statement.
“The health and long -term welfare of animals are still Marineland’s priority in the transition process.”
Until Tuesday, its main telephone number was not working, its Facebook page was withdrawn and its website did not mention its reopening date.
This time last year, its reopening date on June 28 was already published on its website, according to Internet Archives.
Two more whales of Beluga have died in Marineland, carrying the total number of whale deaths to 17 since 2019. Animal rights activists say that Ontario’s theme park should be closed forever.
The park traditionally closed for autumn and winter, and reopened in spring, but in recent years it reduced operations, said Janet Adams, Employment Coordinator at the Niagara Employment Help Center.
At its peak, Marineland would hire 500 to 700 seasonal employees, he said.
But last year he hired only a few janitor and ATMs, and called on employees of the previous year, Adams said.
This year, they have not published any summer post, impacting students looking for work, he said.
18 deaths from Beluga whales since 2019
Ontarium animal welfare services have been investigating Marineland for five years, visiting the park more than 200 times since 2020.
Eighteen Beluga Beluga, a murderous whale and a dolphin died in Marineland since the end of 2019, including a Beluga earlier this year.
The province declared in 2021 that all marine mammals in the park were in danger due to poor water, but told the Canadian press last year that the water problem had taken to the standard.
In 2024, Marineland was convicted under the laws of Animal Cruelty of Ontario for his care of three young black bears.
The bears lived in an enclosure that measured 48 square feet and their outer area was 360 square feet, and lacked water and climbing structures, according to a provincial court.
However, the bears needed to be in an enclosure of at least 10,000 square feet, the animal welfare inspectors determined.
Cabildo who works on animal export permits
Last month, Marineland sold one of its properties that included an office building to a corporation numbered for more than $ 2.7 million, according to land records. It is on the road from the extensive main park.
Earlier this year, he obtained the permission of the city of the Niagara cataracts to turn the large park into four plots to get mortgages.
Tom Richardson, a lawyer who represents Marineland, said in a public meeting in February that he needs money to continue financing the park’s operations and eventually move his animals, including more than two dozen Beluga whales, as well as bears and deer.
“It is to go to the elephant in the room, and that is the movement of whales and other creatures,” he said.
After the animals move, the park will fuse the plots again, instead of selling them individually, Richardson said.
In March, a Marineland consultant, Andrew Burns, registered as a lobbyist to “communicate with government officials” on obtaining permits to exchange endangered species internationally and export cetaceans, a classification of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins.
Burns did not respond to a request for comments.
