Sad reality of what could happen to orcas discovered in abandoned marine park in viral video

Warning: This article contains discussions of animal cruelty that some readers may find upsetting

Last month, footage went viral of two orcas that appeared, at first, to be dead in a tank of water at an abandoned marine park in France.

Marineland of Antibes was closed in January of this year in connection with a French law that is set to come into force, banning orca shows. However, a pair of killer whales, 23-year-old mother Wikie and 11-year-old son Keijo, remain there, as their future hangs in the balance.

A proposal made in April by Tenerife's Loro Parque Zoo to take in the orcas was rejected, but Wikie and Keijo don't have the luxury of time, as concerns have been raised over their health.

The viral footage was filmed by Seph Lawless, who recently spoke to LADbible about what could happen next for the pair of orcas that millions have seen languishing in the abandoned park, thanks to his footage.

After seeing his viral video, marine biologists got in touch and warned they were 'concerned with the water quality' the killer whales were being kept in.

Those are fears shared by Marketa Schusterova, co-founder of activist group Tidebreakers, who had warned that Wikie and Keijo would 'get sick and die' if they weren't relocated from their tank, while Marineland managers in April told the BBC the whales 'must leave now'.

Months later, however, they're still there, but Lawless has now told LADbible exactly what could happen to them next.

"There's four options that can happen," he explained. "Number one, they can be sent to a suitable sanctuary. But right now, there's none even operational, the closest is Whale Sanctuary Project, which I support, but it's a little aspirational if I'm being completely honest.

"Mainly it's aspirational, it’s going to cost them roughly $20 million operational just to get it up and running. It’s in Nova Scotia, which is fine. It's a seaside sanctuary where this is the most humane way to deal with something like this."

The Whale Sanctuary Project has previously stated that getting Wikie and Keijo to Nova Scotia is 'the only option left', and Lawless said they would be living in the sea in an area cordoned off with nets, comparing it to transitioning from solitary confinement to house arrest.

Of course, there is a problem with this approach, as Lawless said, there aren't any 'operational' and the sanctuary in Nova Scotia hasn't been built yet.

Option number two on the table is 'transferring them to another zoo or a park', which was previously proposed but didn't end up happening.

Lawless said: "The existing French law forbids them to sell them to another place that's going to use them for entertainment, so that can't be another a marine park, it would have to be a zoo."

He suggested that it would not be a popular choice, given the response to his footage of the whales and a desire for them to be free.

Another option on the table, he suggested, was 'they might just hold them' and see what happens when December 2026 arrives to relocate them.

“Or they just might release them," Lawless continued. "They might just release them in the ocean, which has its own caveats and issues and troubles, because they were born in captivity.

"But there's a moral argument to be made there as well. Maybe they live a better life until they die. I think you can make that opinion."

Releasing animals that have spent such a long time in captivity back into the wild is fraught with danger, when Keiko the whale from Free Willy was prepared for years to be freed but lasted just over a year and did not integrate with other orcas before his death.

Lawless did say there was a 'fifth option' on the table, which represented the 'worst option, but the most cost-effective' and the easiest for Marineland.

The worst of all options Lawless raised was the whales being left to 'slowly die' rather than have people engage with the cost and logistics of transporting them elsewhere and caring for them.

He said: “Conceivably, in our lifetime, we'll never see another marine park operating and exploiting mammals and animals for profit in those countries, in France and Canada, which is great.

“But then you're left with these whales today, and it almost would make more sense for them to let them slowly die than to deal with this, because, let's be honest, $20 million and then the oversight, the overhead cost you're going to have to deal with it, the veterinary, it's not free.

“After you do that there's going to be costs associated with that. And then what? What happens? What's the end game? You saved a few orca whales."

Lawless also told LADbible that he was concerned that 'pressure to resolve it quickly', given the deadline and the attention, would result in the whales being transported 'in an unsafe manner'.

He described how one of his attempts at filming the whales stuck in the abandoned marine park led to 'a groundswell of security coming at me', which caused him to pack up and run off before the police were also on his case.

The viral filmmaker described trying to 'act nonchalant' by sitting at a restaurant before being grabbed by police and being able to get away and 'run back to the hotel'.

Before long, they were banging on his door, with him refusing to open up, as he claimed that he waited for them to go back down to the front desk and get a key, at which point he took a side door out of the hotel and fled.

"I left some personal belongings, like underwear and socks on the floor. I left that quick, but I didn't leave anything of substance," Lawless told LADbible.

He said he didn't want to check into another hotel, so he spent the evening on the beach before boarding a train to Milan in the morning and flying out of Europe in what he said was a 'scary experience'.

If you see an animal in distress and/or in need of help, contact the RSPCA's national animal cruelty line on 0300 1234 999 from 8am to 5pm seven days a week, or visit their website for further advice