Six of 30 Relocated Marineland Whales Have Died. No Appropriate Seaside Sanctuary for Them Was Available in North America
Six of the 30 whales transferred from the now-shuttered Marineland theme park in Niagara Falls, Ont., have died, CBC reports. Releasing captive-raised whales into the wild would lead to certain death, marine experts noted, and there was no appropriate seaside sanctuary for them in North America; a proposed sanctuary in Nova Scotia was still years away from being developed.
Angela Fernandez, director of the Animal Law Program at the University of Toronto’s law faculty, says the stress of the transfers cannot be underestimated, but that does not mean the attempt to give the whales a better life was not in their best interests.
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Six of 30 is the figure that will define this rescue, whatever the alternatives were.
That framing risks treating every death as proof the transfer was wrong. Release would have meant certain death, and no appropriate seaside sanctuary for the whales was available in North America.
Fair, but “best interests” is still a test. Fernandez says the stress cannot be underestimated, yet that does not rule out the move being in the whales’ best interests.