沉默笼罩着海洋乐园。曾经来观看杀人鲸、可爱的海豹、海狮和海豚以及世界上最大的圈养白鲸群的数百万游客已不再。围栏内，自然重新回归。树木和灌木缠绕在龙山的轨道上，这曾被称为世界上最大的钢铁过山车。其环形轨道现在降入一片浑浊的沼泽。其他游乐设施已被拆除，零部件在等待计划在今年夏天晚些时候来取的买家。啁啾声、尖叫声和水花声打破了宁静。海洋乐园在公园的最后几天里多次邀请《加拿大新闻社》进入。这个关闭的游乐园正在将30只鲸鱼和4只海豚转移到美国和西班牙的水族馆。公园自2024年起对公众关闭，并表示资金不足，无法再照顾这些鲸鱼，这才导致了这一“前所未有”的举动。（2026年8月5日）故事继续在广告下方 Somewhere in the middle of the seemingly abandoned Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction, past King Waldorf Stadium, beyond the partially submerged rollercoaster and under the watch of the quiet Sky Screamer, a few dozen of Canada’s last captive whales swim in two large pools. Mist spews from the belugas’ blowholes as they break the surface of the water at Arctic Cove. Several bright white belugas “drive by,” swimming quickly on their side to get a better view of the strangers peering down at them. Others lift their heads in what’s known as a spy hop, their uniquely flexible necks combing the pool deck. Trainers arrive with food: capelin, herring and squid shipped directly from a fishery on the East Coast and stored in the park’s commercial freezer. The food is independently tested and then given to the whales in metal buckets that bear their names: Xena, Gemini and Calypso, among others. The melon on Xena’s forehead, used to communicate and echolocate, is squishy to the touch. The female beluga is among the oldest at the park and has lived there since the late 1990s after she was plucked from Russian waters. Thirteen belugas, including Xena, have already moved to new homes. Seventeen other belugas, four dolphins, hundreds of deer and several dozen employees at Marineland will all soon be gone. Story continues below advertisement History is now in the making. The biggest collective move of captive whales the world has ever seen has begun. There will be multiple moves over the coming weeks and months. In the end, Canada will have no more captive whales or dolphins. The beluga pod, along with Marineland’s four dolphins, will move to four aquariums in the United States and another in Spain. The American aquarium consortium has dubbed the moves a “rescue,” which helped expedite U.S. import permits. Closed to the public since 2024, Marineland invited The Canadian Press inside the park on several occasions in June and July as the end of its days drew near. The invitation was a reversal for Marineland after it banned a Canadian Press reporter from the park under threat of trespass charges in 2023, during reporting that exposed multiple beluga deaths at the park. Marineland also pledged to stop responding to the newswire’s questions. The park kept that promise until earlier this year. It was also the first time in more than a decade that Marineland welcomed journalists inside, other than a National Geographic film crew that documented a smaller whale move in 2021. “There’s a perception that everything’s hidden here, no matter what we say and do,” says Andrew Burns, a lawyer who was the longtime right hand to Marineland owners John and Marie Holer and the park’s adviser. Story continues below advertisement “Now, in the midst of this critical rehousing, essentially rescuing these animals, we want to give absolute open, clear access without any restrictions,” says Burns, who rarely grants interviews. The first two whale moves went off without a hitch. It took about four hours to move six belugas into specialized transport trucks one day in mid-July. They were hoisted out of their partially drained pools by crane in a custom-made sling, carefully lowered into large, water-filled tanks on transport trucks, then driven under police protection to Toronto Pearson International Airport and flown to their destinations in Chicago and San Antonio. The second move, two weeks later, brought a group of seven belugas to San Antonio. “The scale of this move is unprecedented,” Burns says. They used the same team of experts who helped Marineland move five belugas in 2021 to Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Three of those belugas later died at Mystic, which blamed pre-existing conditions for their deaths. Spanish and U.S. aquarium veterinarians and officials have visited Marineland several times over the past few months as they planned for the move. There are medical checks, lots of paperwork and b