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I just remembered seeing a while back that about half of the fallow deer herd was lost to some contagion. It seems not a single species has been spared from poor care.
 
Marineland reopens July 24th. Their details on what they will be doing in light of covid are non existent. I checked through their site. Other than a pop up on the home page that they are making decisions about covid in the best interests of staff, guests and animals there is nothing. Facebook questions about getting tickets reveals they are still letting people buy at the gate and there are no timed entries which makes me feel like there is also going to be no cap on admission. Nothing about wearing masks, one way routes, social distancing, cleaning plans or anything to indicate any game plan to keep guests safe the same way all of the zoos and aquariums did. I get it's not really a zoo or aquariums but also not totally a theme park but you would think they would have some kind of rules to protect guests listed so people can come prepared. It almost feels like they just want to fling open the gates and pretend that the world hasn't changed. They could post their rules in the next few days sure but you think they would have some of that in place with now less than 48 hours to opening.

UPDATED - I did find an article about the reopening from earlier in the month that does list some of the things they are doing but it should be on the website clear as day.

Delayed by pandemic, Marineland opening for the season this month
 
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Marineland finally has its protocols up for people to see. They are reducing capacity and putting into place similar plans to the other zoos across the country. Two things they are missing that many others are doing is you can still buy tickets at the gate and there is no reservation system. It will be first come first serve until they reach capacity. That would really stink if you show up and can't get in. They could have done a hybrid. Any online tickets bought for a particular day have guaranteed spots. You choose to buy in person you take the risk of being turned away.

Covid-19 Protocols - Marineland
 
Questions are being raised about the health and wellbeing of walrus Smooshi and her calf. Apparently no one has seen them since the birth announcement June 3 leading her former trainer to accept they are likely dead. I did look through their Facebook and there are no photos of them since then. You would think once they opened to pull in as much of a crowd as possible they would promote the calf. It would have been a good draw in a financially rough year for them.

To read the article I don't have a subscription to that paper but I just opened and closed it as many times as it took to read it through. Took several tries but I got it.

Five-month absence of Marineland walrus Smooshi and her calf raises concerns
 
TZFan said:
Questions are being raised about the health and wellbeing of walrus Smooshi and her calf. Apparently no one has seen them since the birth announcement June 3 leading her former trainer to accept they are likely dead. I did look through their Facebook and there are no photos of them since then. You would think once they opened to pull in as much of a crowd as possible they would promote the calf. It would have been a good draw in a financially rough year for them.

To read the article I don't have a subscription to that paper but I just opened and closed it as many times as it took to read it through. Took several tries but I got it.

Five-month absence of Marineland walrus Smooshi and her calf raises concerns
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The silence is apparent, but it very well may be a coincidence. I think it's smart not to jump to conclusions, and hopefully someone can inquire the park for an update. One thing is for sure though: Phil Demers has repeatedly discredited himself and his opinion should be taken with a sizable grain of salt.
 
TZFan said:
Marineland has won its law suit to send 4 females and 1 male beluga to Mystic Aquarium. The 7-12 year old whales are not to breed perform. They could be flown south as early as this weekend.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/marineland-beluga-1.6025503
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Not to breed that is insane. Unreal in captive-breeding facility and - I do believe - contrary to good conservation breeding practice. It really is not good when uninformed activism prevails over improving husbandry and breeding practice. We will have to agree sometime that really the marine environment is even more threatened by mankind and in danger of losing large parts of biodiversity by our hands. It is imperative we learn how to deal in good practice and standing with captive-breeding options for endangered wildlife and floras.
 
TZFan said:
Walrus, Smooshi's, calf was a male. He's been named Koyuk and appears to be alive and well as of his first birthday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPlgvaQD5MO/
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So is the institution simply gonna skip over mentioning what happened to his mother? Because it feels rather obvious given its omission from the post. I wish the calf was going to be raised at an institution with a better track record of welfare and with other walruses to socialize though.
 
@nczoofan, I thought that was odd too. I had to check through all of there social media to find that post too. There was no proud announcement on the other social media streams. They didn't issue a press release on his birthday or even once they opened to generate buzz. I honestly just stumbled across this by accident. If they were really proud why weren't they advertising it? When Aquarium Du Quebec had their two calves it was information hard to miss. They wanted to show off their achievement and use the incredibly rare pair of calves to their full advantage. Yet until now it was virtually radio silence from Marineland. What better way to disprove the claims of poor care for the walruses than to show of a healthy and thriving calf which is such a hard and rare achievement? Something is amiss. Either they need a new PR team or they are hiding something.
 
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