Threatened by euthanasia in a closed animal park in Canada, four belugas and a dolphin died after their very media transfer this summer to aquariums in the United States and Spain.
© Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune via Getty Images
25/09/2026
by
Lusa
A dolphin named Echo, died in the Valencia Oceanarium in Spain, where he arrived with “serious vision problems and other clinical backgrounds”, today announced the Spanish aquarium. This is the latest death among these animals.
This death occurs after three belugas transferred to the Chicago Shedd aquarium and another in Valencia in the last few weeks.
The saga of the transfer of about thirty belugas and dolphins from Marineland Canada Park to aquariums in the United States and Spain was very mediatic this summer in Canada, as well as the deaths that followed in recent weeks.
Closed since 2024, the Marineland, which in the past was a lucrative tourist attraction near Niagara Falls, had claimed that it could no longer bear the cost of caring for these animals and had threatened to euthanize them if no shelter was found for them.
The park’s former trainer, who became a whistleblower, Phil Demers told French news agency AFP this Thursday that he is not “surprised” with these deaths, which links the “bad conditions” of these animals’ lives in Marineland.
“ The animals were already sick before being transferred,” he said. “It’s a disaster,” he added, and said he expected “more deaths.”.
Marineland's been at the polemic center for years. According to the Canadian press, 20 animals, including 19 belugas, died between 2019 and 2025.
The park ensured that they were “natural deaths”, but animal protection services in Ontario province are investigating possible mistreatment.