{"id":87379,"date":"2025-08-23T12:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T12:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/87379\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T12:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T12:09:09","slug":"lipsi-island-becomes-stage-for-orca-tug-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/87379\/","title":{"rendered":"Lipsi island becomes stage for orca tug-of-war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" class=\"picture-main-block-image\" data-nxsrc=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Orcas-shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"Lipsi island becomes stage for orca tug-of-war\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Orcas-shutterstock-960x600.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>[Shutterstock]<\/p>\n<p>A French bid to relocate two orcas and 12 dolphins to Greece has sparked sharp debate over the future of captive marine mammals.<\/p>\n<p>The animals remain at Marineland Antibes near Nice, which shut down after France banned the use of whales and dolphins for entertainment in 2021. Paris rejected relocation to facilities in Japan and Spain, citing concerns over animal welfare and overcrowding.<\/p>\n<p>Greek environmental group Archipelagos has proposed hosting the orcas, named Wikie and Keijo, on Lipsi island, where it seeks approval for a wildlife rehabilitation center that could also serve as a marine mammal sanctuary. \u201cWe created a state-of-the-art center \u2026 and applied seven years ago,\u201d said research director Anastasia Miliou.<\/p>\n<p>But Greece\u2019s Environment Ministry and its advisory panel are wary, citing failed international precedents. \u201cIf dolphins start dying, there will be international disgrace,\u201d one committee member told Kathimerini. Officials insist licensing delays stem from incomplete applications, not obstruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Shutterstock] A French bid to relocate two orcas and 12 dolphins to Greece has sparked sharp debate over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[10241,1397,43873,50,90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-87379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-protection","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-islands","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}