This promotion appeared in recent days in the streets of Antibes boasting a “super deal” before a “cessation of activity”. Marineland, concerned by the recent law which should prohibit the captivity of cetaceans in 2026, would sell its four killer whales on the occasion of a “total liquidation” and with “up to 50% reduction”. Broken price especially for Inouk, offered at 950,000 euros instead of 1.9 million euros. The icing on the cake, for the purchase of one of these boarders, “a dolphin” would be “offered”.
The flash campaign, illegally displayed in advertising “lollipops”, was obviously not an official communication from the marine zoo. It was actually a “performance” by the street artist TooLate, a regular at these shocking urban installations. In a text sent to 20 minutes, he explains that he wanted to “denounce the sale of orcas from Marineland to Japan”. This hypothesis, raised since May by the One Voice association, is neither “confirmed” nor “refuted” by the management of the zoo.
“Trade in cetaceans is prohibited”
Contacted this Monday by 20 minutes, she let it be known that she “does not wish to comment on this communication action”. The management of Marineland recalls all the same that “the trade in cetaceans is prohibited by the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora”. Last spring, already questioned about the possibility of transferring her killer whales to a Japanese park, she indicated that she was “studying several possibilities of relocation” with a view to applying the law of November 30, 2021. This text “aimed at combating animal abuse and strengthening the bond between animals and humans” provides that a ban on keeping cetaceans will come into force at the end of 2026. No decree allowing its application has yet been published.
On its posters, TooLate also printed a flash code that “calls for signing the One Voice petition “says the artist. The NGO calls for “the placement of the four killer whales in a sanctuary where they can finally know something other than captivity”.