Canada Is Shaming Itself With Talk Of Euthanizing Marineland’s Beluga Whales

We All Have A Responsibility To Make Sure These Great Animals Are Properly Cared For

A Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper

Posted October 8^th, 2025 on Niagara At Large

Captive beluga whales, on public exhibition at the Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario now face the threat of  euthanasia.

The final chapter in the long story about why marine mammals should never be kept in captivity for our entertainment is now playing out at what is left of the once-popular Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The chapter opens in the wake of one killer whale (the last one held in captivity in all of Canada) and 19 beluga whales dying at the now shuttered park since 2019, and 30 surviving belugas now facing the possibility of euthanasia after Canada’s Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson recently said “no” to a plan by Mare inland’s owners to sell them to an aquarium in China.

“I could not in good conscience approve the export of these whales for further exploitation. I would welcome all export requests that align with the Fisheries Act and would expeditiously review them,” said Thompson in a statement she released this past October 1st.

That has left the current owners of Marineland –opened and operated by its founder John Holer from 1961 until his death in 2018 – claiming that with the ticket gates to the park closed since last year, they no longer have enough money to care for the remaining marine mammals.

Unless the federal government reverses its decision on exporting the belugas to aquarium in China, they say, or finds another facility for them or puts up money for their care, they “face the devastating decision of euthanasia.”

To that, Thompson is insisting that it is Marineland’s responsibility to properly care for the whales and the handful of other animals, including a few dolphins, sea lions and bears, that are still in its care, while Ontario Premier Doug Ford is sitting on the sidelines, expressing his disappointment over Thompson’s opposition to exporting them to China.

Thompson should allow the whales to be exported to China, says Ford, or to some other marine in the world that will take them.

All of this is disgusting coming from owners of a park that, during the more than six decades it was open, made God-knows how many tens-of-millions of dollars off the exploitation of captive marine mammals and from two level of government that, regardless of what party was in power, hardly expressed a word of concern about keeping marine mammals in captivity for our collective amusement until the park closed its gates to the public last year.

For decade after decade, while animal welfare activists were protesting outside the park’s gates about the cruelty of ripping marine mammals away from their pods in the sea and confining them to cement containers of chlorinated water for our entertainment, government after government at the federal, provincial and municipal level were treating Marineland like a sacred cow because it was such a big tourist draw.

To many government and business leaders in Niagara and other regions of the province and country, any criticism of Marineland was treated like blaspheme.

Even after the federal government, more than  two and a half decades ago, banned the capture of beluga whales in Canadian waters because it was worried about their diminishing numbers, neither it or any other government or business entity expressed a word of criticism when Marineland proceeded to import belugas captured in Russian waters.

And now we have three parties – the park owners and the federal and provincial governments – with the fate of these great animals in their hands and if they allow them to be euthanized, they stand the chance of shaming Canada before the world.

We should all be pressing our federal and provincial government representatives to do whatever is necessary to care for these animals until a proper sanctuary is found for them to live out their lives in as humane away as possible.

According to a recent CBC report, a source at Marineland said that caring for the animals still in the park would cost about $2 million per month.

I still can’t forget this aging dolphin named Duke circling around and around all by himself in an above-ground glass tank during his last year’s at Marineland. What kind of entertainment did people get out of that? – Doug Draper

As this news reporter remembers all of the other dolphins and whales –  Duke, Kandu, Kiska and so many more – that struggled to survive here,  this seems like a small price to pay after all that these animals have given over the years.

Indeed, it seems like a very small price when you consider how much money the current owners of Marineland are likely to get when the park’s sprawling lands are sold.

As the legendary naturalist and environmental activist Jane Goodall, who died this past October 1^st at age 91, once said; “If we do not do something to help (other) creatures, we make a mockery of the whole concept of justice.”

• Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

For a recent CBC report on this issue, click on – https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/marineland-belugas-ontario-ottawa-1.7653553 

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