Sephlawless is not a hero, and does not deserve your praise
Maybe I’m just being a bit cynical here, but sephlawless’ instagram stunt of sneaking into Marineland Antibes to obtain “undercover” footage, or whatever you want to call it, is just….. exploitative. He’s exploiting an already delicate situation to boost himself as some kind of savior. It drives engagement on his social media, that’s for sure, but it’s not actually helping the orcas and dolphins stuck there.
Here’s the thing. Tons of people, pro and anti-cap, have been following this issue for a long time. This isn’t some kind of cover up. He hasn’t revealed anything new, nor has he found any kind of illegal activity. We know the whales and dolphins are stuck there. We know the facilities are falling apart. We know there is only a skeleton crew there at the moment, and thus are limited in the amount of animal care they can provide. So what exactly is he contributing to the conversation here?
Sure, his platform has brought more people previously unaware of this problem to the table, BUT… Has he brought awareness to the fact that MLA didn’t just “abandon” their animals there, but rather that every single attempt to transfer them somewhere else has been blocked by the French and Spanish governments at the behest of animal rights groups like One Voice?
MLA was ready to send these animals to Japan almost two years ago… which wasn't great, but it was something. This was supposed to happen well before the park's closure. They knew facilities were degrading and that they did not have the means to prevent it. The new laws in France restricting cetacean captivity just made the situation all the more unsustainable, and Granvista at that time was the only company willing to take the orcas. Again, it was not a good situation, but it was what it was.
But because of One Voice's lobbying, the French government blocked this move. Several months ago Loro Parque, flawed though it is, was willing to take the orcas and some of the dolphins. Then the Spanish government, again likely from pressure from activists and worries about bad publicity, denied that under the premise that they didn’t meet minimum spacial requirements to house cetaceans. The problem though is that Spain doesn’t have its own laws to that effect, Loro Parque does exceed minimum EU and EAZA standards, and has historically housed more orcas than it currently has. They are not at capacity. These Spanish authorities still have yet to clarify how they came to this conclusion, and why an emergency transfer to Loro Parque, even as a temporary measure until a sanctuary is built, is somehow worse than keeping them in a closed down facility that’s falling a part. The logic here makes zero sense.
But brainless animal rights groups like One Voice celebrated that, even though it directly resulted in the situation these animals are currently in… stuck in a closed down facility with only a skeleton crew to take care of them. Why? Because they are set on an all or nothing approach, send them to a sanctuary or nothing at all! They would rather see them sacrificed (dead) than at another marine park. They've explicitly said as much.
So…. Does sephlawless talk about that? Does he mention how there are, at present, ZERO operational sanctuaries for cetaceans that could take these animals? That their only good options at present are Loro Parque or maybe SeaWorld? That euthanasia has been discussed if they can't be moved? Does he mention how the Whale Sanctuary Project lobbied alongside One Voice to get a hold of Wikie and Keijo, despite not having anything ready for them? They’ve been promising a sanctuary for years, and yet have NOTHING ready. Even other anti-cap groups are calling them out on that. But it's not just WSP. None of the other groups like SeaShepherd promising some magical “sanctuary” so much as have the necessary permits to build one!
Has he talked about how long it would take to get an adequate sanctuary ready for these animals even if permits were granted, and that these animals don’t have that long to wait for such a fantasy?
Well? Does he? Does he even know any of this? Frankly, I’m not even sure he cares to know. Seaofsurprises on Instagram, who has been following and documenting all this long before this guy has, was apparently blocked by him when they* tried to correct some of what he said. Nice.
These are not the actions of an ethical journalist. He gives zero context to this whole thing, and just frames it as all the park’s doing, when it isn’t. This is a heavily edited, carefully curated video meant to spark a specific response out of his audience. It's yet another form of emotional ragebait that does nothing to actually inform the audience about the issue at hand, let alone lead them to a viable solution besides "get angry!"
He is not a hero. He’s just a TideBreakers copycat. But you know what, at least TideBreakers and their partners at The Flip have highlighted the activists’/governments’ culpability here (though they may downplay it), and that there are no sanctuaries in existence. They were also the ones who were far more impactful in bringing international attention to this, and they deserve credit for that. They also at least promote a semi-realistic goal of building an intermediate tank like they did with Keiko before moving them to a sanctuary (query as to how waiting for that is any better than waiting for a sanctuary, but whatever, at least they know how unrealistic and cruel keeping these animals in crumbling tanks is, just for a sanctuary that cannot be guaranteed). They’ve also kept their distance with their drones so as not to put themselves, staff or animals at risk.
That last part is what particularly irks me about sephlawless' stunt. This guy has made a name for himself sneaking into abandoned places, but the difference here is that MLA isn’t truly abandoned. There are staff still there, and there are living animals there still, with operating life support systems and potentially delicate equipment.
Having worked with these sort of systems (albeit on a smaller scale) I would be absolutely LIVID if someone snuck behind the scenes for clout like that. Not because I have something to hide, but because such an action would potentially put me, the animals and the trespasser in danger, and that’s in a situation where all facilities are functioning properly. How much worse could it have been knowing the disrepair MLA is allegedly in? What if he went somewhere unstable and caused more damage? What if that led to him hurting himself, an animal or a staff member? What if he knocked/dropped something into the tanks? Worse, what if he fell into the tanks and the animals reacted aggressively? Would that have been worth it just to get some cool video to post on social media!?
He doesn’t know what he could be inadvertently messing with back there. He doesn’t know what sort of biosecurity protocols he could be violating. He doesn’t know how his presence/behavior might be affecting the animals. And no, don’t sit there and tell me “oh calm down the animals didn’t look bothered by him at all in the video.” No. Shut up. Neither you nor he are animal behaviorists, nor do you know those animals like the people who actually work with them. (Also, he said “the poor orcas looked like they were comforting each other” ……HOW does he know that, and even if they were, HOW does he know they weren’t “comforting” each other because they were nervous about a stranger being there without their familiar trainers being present? It’s not that these animals don’t have emotions, but look, he is blatantly anthropomorphizing them based purely on vibes. That alone is a red flag. Social media influencers, stop pretending to know what animals are thinking challenge.)
And sure, you can make the point that “calm down, he was careful, he didn’t touch anything, he wasn’t there to sabotage.” At the time he was caught trespassing though, the staff didn’t know that. They had no way of knowing what his intentions were, whether he was armed or not, or what he might have touched. His “noble” intentions don’t make his actions any less risky, nor do they make them ethical.
I mean he didn't even have the courtesy to blur out the faces of the staff he recorded via drone. Look, whether you support cetaceans in captivity or not, these are not unfeeling villains.... these are low level, frontline, underpaid staff just trying to do their jobs with very limited resources. They have been put into an impossible situation where they are damned if they do, damned if they don't. It is not fair to potentially subject them to further harassment just because you couldn't be bothered to blur out their faces.
His video showed how and where he snuck in too. What if someone with more malicious intentions used that as a means to enact a plan to do harm? There are perfectly valid reasons why any institution would not want public footage of their back of house areas. It’s a security risk. How might this embolden copycats chasing clout… copycats even more careless or incompetent than him? Or worse, someone who actually wants to do harm? Frankly, MLA and the French government have every right to go after him for what he's done. Again, just claiming to be a some kind of noble journalist doesn't make your actions ethical or right. You don't get to hide behind the framing of "little guy vs. big evil corporation" when you do something incredibly stupid.
He’s not a hero. He is just another big ego that has decided to jump on this mindless "empty the tanks" bandwagon, without regard to the actual nuances of this situation. And I'm just so tired. I'm so tired of big egos like this in activism getting in the way of what is actually best for the animals involved.
This sort of egotistical, simplistic, black and white thinking in animal rights activism JUST. NEEDS. TO. STOP!!! It is not helping the animals, and in this case, it's actively hurting them!
People constantly shouting "eMPtY tHE tAnKz!" without actually implementing viable, longer term alternatives are precisely WHY the animals at MLA are in this situation in the first place! This is true whether or not you support cetaceans in captivity or not!
Stop stoking people's egos. Stop worshipping self proclaimed animal saviors, and start support tangible, workable solutions!
