Eight of Marineland Antibes' twelve remaining dolphins were transferred to Spain's Selwo Aventura park in Málaga overnight Wednesday into Thursday, confirming warnings animal rights groups had raised just a day earlier, according to France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
Around twenty activists from Sea Shepherd France and One Voice gathered outside the Antibes park as the animals were loaded into transport trucks around 10pm. Sea Shepherd France had petitioned Nice's judicial court earlier in July to block the move, a request dismissed after Marineland assured the court the cetaceans would not leave before September. One Voice founder Muriel Arnal said the group would keep pushing for sanctuary solutions it has proposed for five years, rather than transfers between commercial parks. "We're fighting so the sanctuary solutions we've proposed for five years finally get accepted, instead of yet another third dolphinarium in France," she said, adding that public support from residents, including drivers honking in solidarity as the trucks departed, had sustained the campaign.
Arnal separately raised concerns about the emotional toll of splitting up family groups during the move, telling ICI Côte d'Azur that transport logistics were never the industry's real difficulty. "It's always the destination that's worrying, and the separation of families that happened here," she said.