A new article from
Reporterre provides more details about Beauval’s dolphin project.
According to Rodolphe Delord, the dolphin pool would hold 30,000 m³ of seawater, covering one hectare (so roughly twice the size of Harderwijk’s main pool) with variable depths up to 8 m. Water sterilization would rely on ozone and UV treatment. NGOs already seem ready to accept public viewing of dolphins, as long as no shows are staged and scientific research is carried out.
I wonder what y'all think about this project which could well see the light of day soon... Personally I really despise it :
1 - Its ecological impact would be massive (land artificialization, water and energy use...), all for a facility that is only supposed to serve as a “transition” to a sanctuary (a promise unlikely to be honored).
2 - Construction and permits will realisticly take
at least two years, during which Marineland’s dolphins remain in miserable conditions.
3 - This gives Beauval an outsized role, with state funding and NGO support, further cementing its dominance over the French zoo landscape.
For me, this reflects a major failure of french animal welfare NGOs, who pushed for laws that condemned Marineland’s dolphins, only to now compromise on
NEW captive cetaceans facility in the country that banned them 4 years ago. I think that these animals should never have been in captivity in the first place. Since relocation projects have consistently failed and sanctuaries like Taranto have yet to be built, one could almost argue that euthanasia would be a more honest outcome than building a dolphinarium at Beauval, a project that feels both ecologically and ideologically absurd. I don’t actually support such a solution, but in this context it almost appears less contradictory. But I think “contradictory” is a word that accurately describes both NGOs that campaign against animal captivity and the current French government.
That said, from an animal welfare perspective, the project does seem decent, and one could even argue its ecological/financial cost is justified if more dolphins are transferred there from other countries.
| Zoo de Beauval