Part family-owned theme park and part roadside zoo, Marineland was once the kind of place where you could get kissed by an orca and feed corn pops to bears.

But then it kept being that kind of place, well into this century, and the problems piled up: newspaper exposés, official investigations, a federal law designed to end the captivity of whales and dolphins once and for all. Yet the Niagara Falls mainstay would defiantly reopen year after year.

Until this year. Marineland still welcomes visitors, but, like a dead mall, nearly everything inside is now closed. Recently, we trekked there to learn what this limbo looks like for Canada’s last captive cetaceans.

Host: Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Jonathan Goldsbie (News Editor), Cherise Seucharan (Reporter), Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Mia Johnson (Journalism Fellow), max collins (Production Manager), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

Additional music by Audio Network

Further reading:

Marineland guilty of charges for keeping 3 bears in cramped quarters – The Canadian Press
Two more belugas dead at Marineland, bringing total whale deaths to 17 since 2019 – The Canadian Press
Scaled down Marineland to open in June without rides, animal exhibits – Global News
A Message from the Owner – Marineland

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