Wikie, 23, and her 11-year-old son Keijo, two killer whales residing at the Marineland Antibes in southern France, are desperately looking for a new home after French authorities rejected their transfer to Canada, BBC News reported on Saturday.
The mother and son duo have spent their whole lives at the Marineland Antibes but are now seeking new waters after the center shut down in January.
Wikie and Keijo's search for a new home
While the pair had originally been set to live out the rest of their days in the Loro Parque marine zoo in Tenerife, their transfer was blocked by Spanish authorities - significantly reducing their appropriate options.
Lori Marino, president of The Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP) stressed that Nova Scotia was the only option left for Wikie and Keijo after another zoo in Japan was rejected.
"I was shocked," Marino told BBC News of Spain’s block. "We thought it was a fait accompli. We assumed that was where the orcas were going, it looked like a done deal."
"If you don't even have a site, you're years away from being a viable sanctuary," said Marino.
The scientific panel concluded Loro Parque's facilities did "not meet the minimum requirements in terms of surface area, volume and depth necessary to house the specimens in optimal conditions.”
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the French ecology minister, said in February that authorities were seeking a European sanctuary for the orcas but one had not yet been identified.
Managers at Marineland, who remain legally responsible for the orcas, shared Marino’s sense of urgency.