Wikie, 23, and her 11-year-old child Keijo, 2 killer whales living at the Marineland Antibes in southern France, are frantically searching for a brand-new home after French authorities declined their transfer to Canada, BBC News reported on Saturday.
The mom and child duo have actually invested their entire lives at the Marineland Antibes however are now looking for brand-new waters after the center closed down in January.
Wikie and Keijo’s look for a brand-new home
While the set had actually initially been set to live out the rest of their days in the Loro Parque marine zoo in Tenerife, their transfer was obstructed by Spanish authorities – considerably decreasing their proper choices.
Lori Marino, president of The Whale Sanctuary Job (WSP) worried that Nova Scotia was the only choice left for Wikie and Keijo after another zoo in Japan was turned down.
” I was surprised,” Marino informed BBC News of Spain’s block. “We believed it was a fait accompli. We presumed that was where the whales were going, it appeared like a done offer.”
” If you do not even have a website, you’re years far from being a practical sanctuary,” stated Marino.
The clinical panel concluded Loro Parque’s centers did “not fulfill the minimum requirements in regards to area, volume and depth essential to house the specimens in ideal conditions.”
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the French ecology minister, stated in February that authorities were looking for a European sanctuary for the whales however one had actually not yet been determined.
Supervisors at Marineland, who stay lawfully accountable for the whales, shared Marino’s sense of seriousness.
.