Marineland (Antibes)

Marineland
Location	Antibes, France
Website	Official site
Owner	Grupo Parques Reunidos
Opened	1970
Slogan	Le parc de la mer et de l´aventure

Marineland is an animal exhibition park in Antibes, France. It was founded in 1970 by Roland de la Poype. First, it was a small oceanarium with a few pools and animals but now it is one of the biggest in the world and receives more than 1,200,000 visitors per year. It is the only French sea park featuring two cetacean species: killer whales and dolphins.

On July 25, 2006, the park was sold to the Spanish amusement park group Parques Reunidos for about 75 million Euros. Parques Reunidos also operates L'Oceanografic in Valencia on the Spanish mainland.

Animal exhibits

• Killer whale show: the largest tank in the world performing in eleven million gallons of water, with a panoramic glass wall 64 metres long where the spectacular power of these mammals weighing several metric tons rivals the gentle complicity binding the whales with their trainers. Marineland holds five orcas: Freya, Valentin, Inouk, Wikie and Moana,her calf, born in March 2011.

• Dolphin show: Marineland’s family of bottlenose dolphins deploy all their charms: speed, accuracy, agility and complete trust in their trainers.

• Les Coulisses de l'apprentissage (sea lion show): 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.

• The shark tunnel: Thanks to a 30-metre-long tunnel through a huge aquarium containing nearly 2 million litres of water, visitors are literally surrounded by sharks and manta rays swimming around them.

• Life under the sea (The tropical aquarium gallery and The touch pool): The tropical aquarium gallery is a temple to the world of coral reefs, with very different vo-lumes represented and the touch pool is a chance to caress skates and rays - fish that literally "fly" in the water - with your finger-tips.

• Pinnipeds: beaches featuring California sea lions, South American sea lions, black seals and grey seals.

• Aquatic birds: beaches featuring penguins, pelicans and flamingos.

• Meeting with dolphins: Each session lasts approximately 1 hour, to discover the biology and ecology of dolphins, before approaching the dolphins for 20 mn under close supervision by trainers on a sunken deck.

• On October 21, 2009, it was announced that the celebrity handreared German polar bear Flocke, from Nuremberg zoo, would move to the park with her Russian polar bear companion, Rasputin, in early 2010.

External links

• MarineLand website
• Orcahome

Coordinates: 43°36′54″N 7°07′32″E / 43.615°N 7.12556°E / 43.615; 7.12556