Marineland dolphin dies weeks after move to aquarium in Spain

Oceanografic Valencia says a dolphin recently moved out of Marineland has died in Spain.

The park says Echo had trouble swallowing along with respiratory problems on Wednesday and her condition deteriorated rapidly despite efforts from its veterinary and animal care teams.

The park said in an earlier social media post that it had increased monitoring of the blind Black Sea bottlenose dolphin in her late 20s.

Echo, along with three other dolphins and two belugas, was sent to Oceanografic on Aug. 26 in an epic 19-hour voyage from the shuttered Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction.

One of those belugas, Jelly Bean, died last week.

Four belugas and one dolphin have now died since Marineland shipped out 30 belugas and four dolphins to five different parks over the summer.

Three of those belugas died at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago along with one of the park’s resident belugas.

Marineland closed in 2024 and has said it was running out of money and could no longer care for its whales. If they were not moved, the park was set to euthanize them.

Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson nixed a deal Marineland had with Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China, saying it was not in the whales’ best interest to send them there.

She said China did not have the same laws as Canada, which banned whale and dolphin captivity in 2019 but grandfathered in Marineland’s animals.

In response, Marineland said it would euthanize the whales if it did not get emergency funding, a threat that made international headlines.

Marineland pivoted to a consortium of American and Spanish aquariums for help. The move of its whales and dolphins began in mid-July and wrapped up by the end of August.

Both Shedd and Oceanografic are investigating to better understand what caused the animals’ deaths.

Veterinarians from all parks were at Marineland in the months leading up to the move and cleared the animals for transport, as did Thompson, who signed off on the moves after receiving updated health information.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2026.