Marineland still offers field trips. Schools opting out instead teach students about park’s controversies | CBC News

Marineland, which for years has faced allegations about its treatment of marine mammals and their use for entertainment purposes, is still offering field trips to schools. 

But instead of going on these outings, students at some Ontario schools, including in Brantford and Hamilton, are engaged in curriculum that teaches them about controversies involving the Niagara Falls, Ont., theme park.

Marineland’s website says the park offers educational activities and resources based on the Ontario curriculum. 

The theme park did not respond to CBC Hamilton’s request for an interview and updated its website following the request, removing a page about its educational video and worksheet series. 

The updated website says trips to Marineland help teachers “bring science curriculum to life for your students in a memorable and exciting way.”

Still, the school boards CBC Hamilton contacted say they’re not taking field trips to Marineland, although it’s not clear if that has anything to do with Marineland’s controversial past.

What some school boards are saying

The Niagara public school board said schools in its district haven’t gone on field trips to Marineland for seven years and it’s “unaware” of any Marineland trips planned for this year. 

The Niagara Catholic school board’s spokesperson, Jennifer Pellegrini, said schools in her district went on trips to Marineland before the pandemic began early in 2020, but added no trips are planned for the end of this school year.

Pellegrini did not say why the school board isn’t sending students, but said all trips in the district “must have a direct and enhancing relationship with the curriculum of the classroom.”

In 2014, a parent with children at Mountain View Elementary School in Stoney Creek, part of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, petitioned and stopped the school from going to Marineland.

The Hamilton-Wentworth public school board said no trips to the theme park are planned for this year. 

Marnie Jadon, communications officer with the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, said, “While we don’t have details, we expect some would have [gone to Marineland] years ago.” 

She also said no trips have been planned for this year. 

In the past, schools in Brantford’s Catholic school board visited the park, but the board also said no trips are scheduled for this year. 

Brantford’s public school board said it could not confirm whether its schools went on trips to Marineland in the past, and said no trips are planned for this year. 

Last year, students in Grades 5 and 6 at Forest Run Public School in Vaughan created a website about returning Kiska, the last killer whale held in captivity in Canada, back to her natural habitat. 

Earlier this year, students at Bayview Glen Public School in Thornhill, Ont., created a video for World Whale Day. The school tweeted the video and thanked the Grade 2 and 3 students for advocating for Kiska. 

Kiska died on March 10 at age 47. Two months later, a beluga whale and bottlenose dolphin also died at the park. 

‘Not an actual learning experience’

Catherine Boutzis, a kindergarten teacher and animal rights activist in Waterloo, Ont., told CBC Hamilton that Marineland is an “attraction,” not a conservation area, and doesn’t teach children about animals in their natural habitats. 

“It’s there purely for [the kids] to bang on the glass and be entertained. It’s not an actual learning experience.” 

She said she has had conversations with her students about Marineland, African Lion Safari and other animal theme parks. 

“I’ve talked to them quite frankly about some of the things they use to train those animals and how those animals were taken from their natural habitat,” she said. 

“They’re not living the life that was intended for them with their families.”

Former Marineland trainer speaks out

Phil Demers, a former Marineland trainer and whistleblower, said that “for as long as I worked at Marineland, there was exactly zero emphasis on education and even less on conservation.”

Under a section of the Canadian Criminal Code introduced in 2019, captive cetaceans — large sea mammals like dolphins — cannot be used “for performance for entertainment purposes” unless the performance is authorized with a licence from the Ontario government.

The new law was part of Bill S-203 passed in 2019 that, after years of debate, banned the captivity of cetaceans. It included a grandfather clause, however, for animals that were already in captivity.

In December 2021, Marineland was charged with using dolphins and whales to perform and entertain without authorization, Niagara police told CBC Hamilton in December 2022. The Crown stayed those charges on Dec. 21, 2022. 

Demers told CBC Hamilton he has watched recent videos of dolphin performances. He said he had to review hours of taped dolphin performances when Niagara police were investigating the park in the fall of 2021 and he watches “countless” social media videos of the park when it’s open to monitor the well-being of the animals. 

He said the current “educational trainer talk” at King Waldorf Stadium, as advertised on Marineland’s website, is still based on a show he designed himself 15 years ago.

He said the original show “was exclusively based on entertainment. Nothing’s changed except for some of the stuff they say over the microphone.”