An illusion that lasted months and was shattered in a video statement. Rodolphe Delord, director of the ZooParc de Beauval, has announced the definitive abandonment of the grandiose plan for the construction of the Center for the Study, Scientific Research and Conservation of Dolphins. The project, conceived as the only real lifeline for Marineland’s cetaceans, officially foundered on Tuesday 25 August. The facility was supposed to cover an area of 2.5 hectares in the Loir-et-Cher region, offering a dozen pools and three huge lagoons.
The main objective was to host a group of 25 dolphins, including eight of the twelve specimens remaining from the now closed Marineland park in Antibes and eleven individuals from Planète Sauvage, a wildlife park located in Port-Saint-Père near Nantes. Despite a preliminary expense of around 1 million euros already paid for appraisals, administrative evaluations and feasibility studies, the construction site gates will never open.
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Between skyrocketing costs and the rift with the French government
What caused the initiative to collapse was a deadly combination of ballooning budgets and institutional barriers. The financial estimate for the construction of the plant suddenly skyrocketed from the initial 25-30 million euros to the record figure of 45 million euros. An unsustainable figure that found its final obstacle in the attitude of the State: the Ministry for Ecological Transition has in fact refused to grant the state guarantee necessary to cover part of the private financing.
While the ministry publicly expressed regret and reiterated its formal commitment to animal welfare, Rodolphe Delord had to acknowledge the impossibility of proceeding in financial security. The absence of concrete government support has transformed a cutting-edge scientific work into an economic business risk that can no longer be calculated for the park, which nevertheless recorded a turnover of 113 million euros in 2023.
The legal battle of the NGOs and the threat of the Asian market
The very tough judicial appeals brought by a dozen animal rights organizations, including C’est Assez!, had an enormous impact on the decision. and One Voice. The associations attacked the project by contesting the captive breeding and continuous transfers of cetaceans, deemed to be in open conflict with the 2021 animal welfare law. On the contrary, the environmentalist group Sea Shepherd had adopted a pragmatic position, supporting Beauval’s operation to avoid worse scenarios.
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Currently, eight dolphins from Marineland were temporarily moved last July to Benalmádena, near Malaga, due to the serious deterioration of the tanks in Antibes. With the cancellation of the containment center in France, Rodolphe Delord has raised a dramatic alarm: without a suitable national structure or a real marine sanctuary, the animals risk ending up sold to amusement parks or hotel chains in Asia, far from any European legislative protection.
