Orca's Sudden Death at Theme Park Sparks Backlash

The “unexpected” death of a 12-year-old male orca named Moana at a theme park in France last week ignited boycott calls and backlash from animal and marine advocacy groups across the globe.

Moana died sometime overnight on October 17, according to a statement sent to Newsweek from Marineland d’Antibes in southern France where the young whale lived in captivity. His cause of death was unknown at the time of publication, with the French theme park saying a post-mortem examination had been conducted and results are expected within the next several weeks.

“This loss is extremely painful for all the zoo teams, for the keepers who have built such a bond with Moana and for all those who love Marineland,” the theme park said in an online statement announcing the orca’s death. “Moana marked our history and will be greatly missed; he will forever remain in the heart of our teams.”

While Moana’s cause of death has not been revealed, animal rights groups are accusing the French theme park of forcing the orcas to live in “poor conditions.”

Romain Serigne, spokesperson for Marineland d’Antibes, told Newsweek in an email on Tuesday that the theme park officials declined to answer questions for this article.

Marineland d’Antibes in southeastern France is under fire after a 12-year-old orca named Moana (pictured) died suddenly.
Courtesy of Tilikum’s Spirit /C’est Assez!

Moana was born in captivity on March 16, 2011, via artificial insemination and spent his entire life at Marineland d’Antibes in the French Riviera with three other orcas: his mother Wikie, half-brother Keijo and uncle Inouk. His father Ulises was “wild-caught” from waters off the coast of Iceland in 1980 and sent to the Barcelona Zoo in Spain where he lived without other orcas before eventually being transported to SeaWorld San Diego where he has lived for nearly 30 years, according to French marine and aquatic animal advocacy group C’est Assez!

“He spent his entire existence in a small concrete amphitheater where his main role in life was to entertain crowds of tourists,” the animal welfare group said.

The group, which was founded in France in 2014 to help end the captivity of whales and dolphins in the country, lashed out at Marineland d’Antibes in an online statement shortly after the theme park announced Moana’s death.

Julie Labille, spokesperson for C’est Assez! told Newsweek in an email that the group is following the case “very closely to shed light on the truth surrounding Moana’s sudden death.”

“We immediately filed a complaint for involuntary harm to an animal and failure to take proper care of it,” Labille said.

C’est Assez! lodged a complaint for “cruelty to an animal held in captivity, abandonment and irregular exploitation,” she told Newsweek in an email on Tuesday, stating the advocacy group discovered “serious irregularities” in the orcas’ Intra-Community Certificates (ICCs), which are European certificates required for the commercial exploitation of an animal, Labille said.

“Three of the four orcas held at Marineland, including Moana, had an F origin which does not authorize their exploitation for commercial purposes. They should therefore never have been exhibited to the public for shows.”

French animal rights group OneVoice says it’s been working for two years to document and condemn the “worrying declining state of the pools” the orcas live in at Marineland. The group said it had filed a complaint in 2021, noting that Moana was in “poor health.” In the complaint, OneVoice called for the French Ministry of Ecology to perform an independent investigation and urged a precautionary shutdown of the theme park.

“We have been right from the start, and this gives us no satisfaction: Moana was in danger,” OneVoice said in an online statement. “He was wasting away, his skin, the sudden collapse of his dorsal fin, his stereotyped behavior and the state of his teeth … all expressing his distress. It was nothing more than a cry for help.”

The group said it is now demanding justice for Moana and pleading that his family be helped.

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), a global nonprofit dedicated to the protection of whales and dolphins, also described the facility as being in “poor condition.”

WDC said on October 13 that an independent investigation had been legally enforced, and that the experts found all four orcas exhibited “behavior issues,” in addition to finding “deep skin injuries” on Moana and poor dental health in Inouk.

Helene O’Barry, field correspondent at the Dolphin Project, a nonprofit dedicated to the welfare and protection of dolphins worldwide, told Newsweek in an email interview on Tuesday that she believes Moana “suffered tremendously” in captivity.

“Moana spent his entire existence in a small concrete amphitheater where his main role in life was to entertain crowds of tourists,” O’Barry said. ”Like the other orcas at the stadium, he was trapped within the barren walls of lifeless, barren concrete tanks. Moana lived this stagnant and monotonous reality for 12 years, and I am convinced that he suffered tremendously as a result. No orca should ever begin  its life in a barren concrete tank, and no orca should ever have to die in one.”

She told Newsweek that  the “dreary confinements” of orcas in captivity don’t resemble their ocean habitat, and prevent them from being able to express their natural abilities, such as foraging, navigating and exploring.

“With everything science tells us about orcas’ astounding intelligence, use of sonar,  highly evolved communication skills and complex foraging techniques, it is preposterous to me that it is still legal in many countries to confine them under such outdated and poor conditions,” O’Barry said.

The dolphin activist said that Moana possessed all the remarkable characteristics of his wild relatives but never had a chance to use them.

“Humans took all that away from him,” she said. “Trapped in a small concrete stadium, surrounded by souvenir shops and ice-cream stands, his main role in life was to attract large crowds of paying spectators who are amused by watching orcas perform in shows.”

Marine Connection, an advocacy group focusing on creating a safer world for all cetaceans, said there has been “ongoing concern over the unsuitable conditions” in which all four orcas lived at Marineland.

“Tanks covered with algae—such dire conditions for these magnificent marine mammals to be living in, day after day,” the group said.

Moana’s family members at Marineland face an uncertain fate, as a French law introduced in 2020 states that the captivity of orcas in France will end by 2030, according to WDC.

“Marineland is therefore in contact with marine parks in Asia and the orcas may be relocated to Japan,” WDC said in an online statement. “The transfer has met with strong criticism both in the [European Union] EU and in Japan.”

C’est Assez! said the group fears the orcas’ living conditions in Japan would be “even worse than they are in France,” Labille told Newsweek.

“A transfer to another facility would be another unbearable trauma for this group of orcas, that over the years, has experienced many deaths and forced separations,” said Julie Labille, group spokesperson. “Wikie, who is no doubt traumatized and mourning the loss of her son Moana, should not have to also endure a transfer to another concrete tank.”

O’Barry told Newsweek that orcas share exceptionally tight social bonds, so their grief over the loss of Moana on top of being transported thousands of miles away would be “traumatizing.”

“Wikie will no doubt mourn the loss of her son for a very long time, perhaps forever, and I am sure that the other two surviving orcas, Inouk and Keijo, also feel a great sense of loss,” she said. “These orcas have been through a lot, and a transfer to a foreign amusement park would be traumatizing for them.”

Animal advocacy groups’ efforts to set up a marine sanctuary for the remaining orcas in France have been unsuccessful, WDC said, adding that “Marineland has refused to cooperate.”

In 2018, Moana, alongside his mom Wikie, made international headlines and amassed widespread recognition for learning to imitate human speech, using their blowholes to mimic laughter and words, like “hello” and “bye-bye.”

Update 10/24/2023, 5:40 p.m. ET: This article was updated with photos and comments from Marineland, Labille and O’Barry.