Marineland (Antibes)

Marineland of Antibes
Global view of the killer whales tanks
Type	Amusement park, dolphinarium, public aquarium, marine zoo
Location	Antibes, France
Area	26 ha
Created	1970
Operated by	Parques Reunidos
Status	Closed until march 21th due to storm damage.

The Marineland of Antibes is a theme park founded in 1970 by Roland de La Poype in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes), in the French Riviera. On 26 hectares it includes a marine zoological park with dolphinarium, a water park (Aquasplash), a children's play park (Kid's Island), a mini golf (Aventure Golf) and a three-star hotel (Marineland Resort). It is the property of the Spanish multinational company Parques Reunidos, whose majority shareholder is the British investment fund Arle Capital Partners. The actual director is Arnaud Palu.

It is one of the four French dolphinariums and one of the two European dolphinariums presenting orcas. With 1.2 million visitors in 2014, it's the most visited site of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. The zoological park is one of the most visited in France.

Since the 2010s, it is more and more criticised by the opponents to cetacean captivity, which claims that dolphinariums can't assure captivity conditions that fits to the proper needs of those species, leading to a prematurate mortality of individuals.

On July 25, 2006, the park was sold to the Spanish amusement park group Parques Reunidos for about 75 million Euros

Marineland’s family of bottlenose dolphins deploy all their charms: speed, accuracy, agility and complete trust in their trainers. The dolphins are Ecume (F), Lotty (F), Sharky (F), Malou (F), Éclair (M), Alize (M), Rocky (M), Dam (M), Neo (M), Mila-Tami (F), Nala (F), Ania (F), and Joseph (M).

A live demonstration of the learning techniques used with all the mammals in the park, in which the seal and sea lion trainers disclose some of the "ropes" for preparing the show, the better to understand the basis of the relationship between humans and animals.