Photo: Animal Liberation MaltaTista’ taqra bil-
Malti.
Activists gathered outside the controversial Mediterraneo Marine Park in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq on Saturday morning in a protest demanding urgent action to end marine mammal captivity in Malta – including the closure of the park.
The protest was led by Earth Systems Association together with Animal Liberation Malta, Friends of the Earth Malta, Marine Connection, Dolphin Project, and TideBreakers and marks the launch of their Waves Not Walls campaign.
The activists have long argued that the park, which presently holds five dolphins in captivity, should have been closed for breaching Maltese law.
While the park is licensed as a zoo, they maintain that this is incorrect given the use of captive dolphins for entertainment purposes. Instead, they argue, the facility is effectively an animal circus: which Malta banned in 2014. Greece has also banned animal circuses, and the activists highlighted how a dolphinarium at the country’s only zoo lost its license as a result.
The activists insist that animal welfare officials should evaluate current dolphin shows and interactions and reassess why Mediterraneo is still licensed as a zoo, though their appeals for action have so far fallen on deaf ears.
At the protest, the campaigners insisted that the situation had reached a critical tipping point with the dolphins “trapped in filthy barren tanks, deprived of freedom, and forced to perform for entertainment.”
“This park has been criticised on multiple levels for years — including the limited and artificial living conditions of the animals, their exploitation in shows for profit, and the lack of transparency regarding their physical and mental health,” Earth System Association member an Waves Not Walls campaign coordinator Justine Previ said.
Another campaign coordinator for Waves Not Walls, Animal Liberation Malta activist Katya Borg, maintained that the “tide is turning.”
“We’re seeing growing public outrage on social media against this establishment. People no longer accept seeing dolphins perform tricks in shallow pools,” Borg maintained. “These wild animals are apex predators whose natural skills play a vital role in marine ecosystems – they are not circus clowns to be exploited for profit.”
Photo: Animal Liberation MaltaThe activists’ demands
The activists also delivered a letter to animal rights minister Anton Refalo, parliamentary secretary Alicia Bugeja Said and director for animal welfare Joseph John Vella to outline their concerns and demands.
Through this letter, which was endorsed by 27 NGOs and student organisations, they called for:
- an independent investigation into animal welfare at the park
- the immediate suspension of all shows and swim-with-dolphins experiences
- urgent veterinary care and proper oversight of all animals
- a clear plan to shut down the park, rehome the animals and end marine mammal captivity in Malta
“Malta has the chance to do the right thing. The time to act is now,” the letter reads.
A parliamentary petition calling for a ban on marine mammal captivity is also presently open: it remains open for signatures until 16 August.
ADPD endorses protest
The protest was endorsed by ADPD – the Green Party, which was represented at the event by deputy chairperson Melissa Bagley and officials Brian Decelis and Mark Zerafa.
The party argued that it was fundamentally wrong to treat animals as a mere source of entertainment, and stressed that a “little pond” was not an ideal environment for dolphins.
“Restricting dolphins to a confined area merely to provide entertainment is clearly animal cruelty; the hot summer weather further exacerbates their suffering,” they party maintained.
ADPD also expressed concerns about the quality of water in which the dolphins were being kept, calling for regular sampling and testing to ensure that minimum standards are met.
