With the busy summer tourist season in Niagara Falls, Ont., weeks away, Marineland says it still hasn’t decided if it will open this year.
The beleaguered aquarium told CBC Hamilton in an email Tuesday “no final decision has been made.”
“As Marineland has repeatedly publicly stated, we continue to be actively engaged in a sale process and transition to new ownership,” said the statement from the marketing department.
“The long-term health and welfare of the animals remains Marineland’s priority in the transition process.”
As of Tuesday, its main phone number wasn’t working, its Facebook page was taken down and its website made no mention of its reopening date.
This time last year, its reopening date of June 28 was already posted to its website, according to internet archives.
Two more beluga whales have died at Marineland, bringing the total number of whale deaths to 17 since 2019. Animal rights activists say the Ontario theme park should be closed for good.
The park has traditionally closed for the fall and winter, and reopened in the spring, but in recent years scaled back operations, said Janet Adams, an employment co-ordinator at the Niagara Employment Help Centre.
At its height, Marineland would hire 500 to 700 seasonal employees, she said.
But last year it hired only a few janitors and cashiers, and called back employees from the year before, Adams said.
This year, they haven’t posted any summer positions at all, impacting students looking for work, she said.
18 beluga whale deaths since 2019
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.
The province declared in 2021 that all marine mammals at the park were in distress due to poor water, but told The Canadian Press last year the water issue had been brought up to standard.
In 2024, Marineland was found guilty under Ontario’s animal cruelty laws over its care of three young black bears.
The bears lived in an enclosure that measured 48 square feet and their outside area was 360 square feet, and lacked water and climbing structures, a provincial court heard.
However, the bears needed to be in an enclosure at least 10,000 square feet, animal welfare inspectors determined.
Lobbyist working on animal export permits
Last month, Marineland sold one of its properties that included an office building to a numbered corporation for over $2.7 million, according to land records. It’s down the road from the sprawling main park.
Earlier this year, it got permission from the City of Niagara Falls to sever the large park into four parcels to take out mortgages.
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.
“It’s to address the elephant in the room, and that is the moving of the whales and other creatures,” he said.
After the animals are moved, the park will merge the parcels back together, rather than sell them off individually, said Richardson.
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.
Burns didn’t respond to a request for comment.
