The Marineland of Antibes is a theme park founded in 1970 by Roland de La Poype in Antibes, in the French Riviera. On 26 hectares it includes a marine zoological park with dolphinarium, a water park, a children's play park, a mini golf and a three-star hotel. It is the property of the Spanish multinational companyParques Reunidos, whose majority shareholder is the British investment fund Arle Capital Partners. The actual director is Arnaud Palu. It is one of the four French dolphinariums and one of the two European dolphinariums presenting orcas. With 1.2 million visitors in 2014, it's the most visited site of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. The zoological park is one of the most visited in France. Since the 2010s, it is more and more criticised by the opponents to cetacean captivity, which claims that dolphinariums can't assure captivity conditions that fits to the proper needs of those species. They also claim that this leads to more prematurate mortality of individuals.
History
On July 25, 2006, the park was sold to the Spanish amusement park group Parques Reunidos for about 75 million Euros
Animal exhibits
;Killer whale show The largest killer whale pool complex in the world performing in of water, with a panoramic glass wall long. Marineland holds four orcas: Inouk, Wikie, Moana and Keijo. ;Dolphin show Marineland is currently housing a total of 10 bottlenose dolphins. The name of the dolphins are: Malou, Sharky, Rocky, Dam, Neo, Nala, Tux, Ania, Jo and Kai. ;Les Coulisses de l'apprentissage 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 In a tunnel through an aquarium containing nearly of water, visitors are surrounded by sharks and manta rays. ;Polar bears Marineland is one of few places in Europe where one can seepolar bears. As of 2020, there are 4 of them: one female and her 3 babies. ;Life under the sea The tropical aquarium gallery shows the world of coral reefs, and the touch pool is a chance to touch skates and rays - fish that seem to "fly" in the water. ;Pinnipeds Beaches featuring California sea lions, South Americansea 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 minutes under close supervision by trainers on a sunken deck.
