"Fewer than 50 orcas are held in captivity worldwide"

Nearly 50 too many.

I cannot see any logic in this decision. None.

Unbelievable that this decision is being made in 2011.

But look , he's smiling.

Absolutely unbelievable. What happened to liberal thinking Netherlands? I am stunned and broken-hearted.

WTF. There are plenty of injured nonreleaseable wildlife for our entertainment. Give them a nice enclosure in a zoo and leave the wild animals in their respective ecosystems. I am so disgusted with the human race right now. Put these poachers in jail.

Incarceration isn't being "rescued".

Shameful.

This whale should never have been taken into captivity in the first place, the best zoos in the world fail to cater to the environmental and social requirements of these massive and intelligent animals, while reintroductions are fraught with so many difficulties as to make them far more often than not impossible to make work. It says everything that a cheesy amusement park is apparently the best solution for this individual.
While the groups who rescue animals such as Morgan do so with the best of intentions, the kindest and most sober act is the immediately end the suffering of whales found under these circumstances.

If most people could just have a few braincells COMBINED with a sense of decency...

Some 'rescue'.

This is sadly becoming common practice- wildlife 'rescue' in many countries is just a new way to collect wildlife for zoos. When the animals are taking part in serious captive breeding then thats fine but that is only about 1% of the time.

A story like this where a sensitive smart cold water creature is being sent to rot in a little warm climate menagerie-cum-tourist trap are some of the worst cases.

In the long run it removes the incentive to save animals in trouble if we know they are going to be requisitioned for private gain.

The point about sociability and survival is well made, returning her to the wild is probably a recipe for a lot of distress and a slow death. Putting her in a pen at a luxury resort is equally unpalatable. I mean, who wants to be a amusing slave for the 1%?

If we really care about this then we need to get together (greens, governments, science) and build a proper reintegration facility somewhere, cool and remote, with a lot of open water; not a pure entertainment venue. A place to permanently house orcas who cannot be returned, but also to try and release where practical and learn how to do it.

Orcas are smart.. they can be taught to survive, and if kept with others social patterns might be flexible enough for new pods to arise which can be released en-mass. Then we can try and reduce that captivity total to 0.

a "natural paradise" with bars, restaurants and shops,

...which Morgan will be making full use of...

Of course Loro Parque is educational: folks will be able to point to the animal and say - look, there's a whale!
Plus the fact, why is an orca being sent to a parrot park? Surley palm trees are not the ideal envrionment.
Seriously though, shame on the judge and his ruling that it would effectively be a death sentence being released into the wild. Could be but chances are not, whereas he has instead condemed the creature to life sentence with no chance of parole

great pro orca comments, thank you

25 orca deaths in captivity in 26 years, You have learned nothing from your study dolpinariums.
Please dont visit these parks.....you are creating a trade for wild orca like Morgan.

http://www.loroparque.com/en/orcas.asp

Speaking of sociability...so she'll be expected to just get on with four 3rd-generation Sea World orcas, whose handlers have all had 2 years' training in Sea World to ensure they can all backflip through hoops, huh?

What was the judge thinking, exactly??

I feel I am missing something here; as futile as it may be, we are all anthropomorphising this whale in referring to slavery and life sentences - how helpful is this?

If we were truly to imagine the whale capable of a logical and emotional response to its predicament, we'd have to assume that, on balance, it'd rather be safe, well fed, well socialised and have access to veterinary attention if it needed it, than take its chances on its own, in the environment where it failed to thrive in the first instance.

While I consider animal welfare to be hugely important, and public discussion of it indicative of a progressive and fair society, I am yet to be convinced that keeping animals in captivity is necessarily wrong. If an animal has everything it needs for survival and socialisation (where appropriate to the species, since some animals are solitary), and is not subjected to anything distressing that is not for its own benefit, then why does the wild trump captivity? Animals in the wild lead brutal lives, with very little chance of a painless or stress-free end; those in captivity, to personify them further, are comparitively lucky.

I suspect there will be those that disagree fervently with this, and I welcome their responses, as I am merely expressing what seems to be a logical, and not a particularly emotionally motivated view. Put simply, it just seems ironic that those who would lambast 'Free Willy' for exploiting a captive animal are taken in by its underlying principle: that animals understand and care about the (very human) concept of freedom.

"is not only commercial, but also has some aspects of scientific research"

they've learned a lot from the Japanese whalers on science-washing cruelty

If we were truly to imagine the whale capable of a logical and emotional response to its predicament, we'd have to assume that, on balance, it'd rather be safe, well fed, well socialised and have access to veterinary attention if it needed it, than take its chances on its own, in the environment where it failed to thrive in the first instance.

Hey? You'd rather be locked up in a jail (and bearing in mind you're far less free range than the whale) than taking your chances on freedom? You've no idea why it was injured - could have hit a boat, caught a disease, etc...

Put simply, it just seems ironic that those who would lambast 'Free Willy' for exploiting a captive animal are taken in by its underlying principle: that animals understand and care about the (very human) concept of freedom.

Now it is you thinking in terms of the whale and anthropomorphising. Everyone else just thinks its wrong to deny a wild animal that freedom in the first place. Obviously this is a tricky case...

Poor, poor Morgan. Let's be very clear here. Morgan has been shipped to a house of horrors where the captive bred orcas have already injured one trainer and tragically drowned another. Where a very young female was articially inseminated at seven years of age and gave birth to a calf she disowned as she herself was taken from her own mother at three! Now it just been announced this same whale is pregnant again. This whale is a CHILD! Furthermore the group dynamics of the orcas already there are incredibly dysfunctional as evidenced by the horrific wounds they display.The Dutch legal representatives responsible for this ignorant decision should hang their heads in shame. Pathetic!

Orca calves do NOT turn up out of the blue by chance. Something has either happened to her pod or her mother and that's why she was alone in the first place. She was emaciated and sick. They had no option but to rescue her. It took a long time to get her back to health and she bonded to her carers in that time. She was also way to young to have a full dialect of her family, she had no knowledge of how to hunt fish and it's highly unlikely that we'd EVER find the correct pod.

Those of you who wish her to be released, wish her to an early, painful, preventable death. This little whale is going to a place with other Orca's so she can socialise and be content. Keiko was a total failure for a release, he still sought out human contact and had to be fed dead fish, so you know, not great.

Morgan probably had about a 98% fail rating if she'd been released. Orca societies don't welcome in strange calves, they stay within their families, if an animal goes missing, then it's out of the family (See Springer's story). Having studied animals and Killer Whales for a long time, the judge made the correct decision on sending her to a Marine park. Maybe not the best one as Loro Parque has a pod of young Whales, but she's going to live a great deal longer than if she'd been released.

If you're anti-zoo or anti-training at the least, you haven't understood the basics. The judge made the correct decision to not handing her over to Free Morgan and all the other EnviroNUTS and she's going to be okay.

This is exactly what I was getting at - of course I wouldn't rather be in jail than enjoy the freedom I have now - but the alternative for me is not dangerous or potentially characterised by deprivation. Were I incapable of feeding myself, vulnerable to attack and close to death I would probably choose jail in a heartbeat - the strongest impulse nature gives us is the desire to survive.

I agree that it is wrong to separate animals from their natural environment purely in our own interests, the point I was making was merely that in this instance, perhaps captivity is in the whale's best interests, and it will suffer less in a water park than it will in the wild.

Personally, if any animal welfare issue was going to keep me awake at night it wouldn't be this one - it would be the plight of the millions of animals reared and slaughtered in appalling conditions only to end up on our plates.

Firstly Rachel I think the importance of the special needs of large/social species such as Killer Whales cannot be overstated here. They have evolved over many hundreds of thousands of generations adaptations that make them supremely and ONLY at home in cold seas, they roam in social groups over hundreds of miles, taking a variety of prey. Recreating those conditions in captivity is literally an impossible task, it'd be prohibitively expensive to even try, which is the entire reason Morgan is off to that circus in Spain.

Now supposing we did want to spend the hundreds of millions or however much it would require to begin approximating their natural conditions in captivity, in which case we'd still be putting a whale into a situation where its requirements would be compromised, we really ought to have a good reason for doing so. So what could those reasons be?
Captive breeding would serve no conservation purpose because such a programme would not address the issues of overfishing, noise pollution and other factors that may impact on whale numbers in the wild.
Education perhaps? Well, a good nature documentary tells you far more about killer whales than the half-hourly show at Seaworld - and does so without harming the animals.
Welfare of the animal? As already explained, if you want a happy whale, you don't keep it in what amounts to a large paddling pool. There is plenty of evidence amassed these days about the stress and health problems experienced by cetaceans in captivity, and any reasonable person can probably imagine why that might be.

Zoos done well can provide an invaluable link between people and animals, but the welfare of those animal ambassadors really ought not to suffer for that cause, otherwise, what are we really teaching people?

"Having studied animals and Killer Whales for a long time.........." Really? Where? Shamu-land?

Don't understand your point about Springer. She's now a healthy, adult female thriving in the wild with her extended family.

Keiko was released into his native waters in Iceland and spent two months in the North Atlantic before swimming into a Norwegian fjord. He didnt do that on dead fish! Do yourself a favor and buy the DVD Keiko: The Untold Story.

I wish I could share your rosy vision of 'the little whale going to a place with other Orca's (sic)". She'll be pregnant in two years, psychotic in three and probably dead in four.

Sleep well with your deluded ideas and I'll see you back on here when Morgan is finally free.

Several good points, all well made.

My perspective is that while orcas travel huge distances, the motivation is I imagine, as with most animals, to seek the wide variety of prey that you refer to, as well as to breed etc. Though the space they require in the wild obviously can't be recreated, if they are fed a sufficiently varied diet within their artificial environment, then the need is negated.

Having said that, I take your point that these behaviours are long ingrained and that many animals don't do well when prevented from acting on their instinctive impulses. If captivity is as detrimental to the animals' well being as you suggest research has shown, then it should obviously be avoided where possible.

In this instance though, we are only talking about one whale, and the question is therefore whether it is better off potentially suffering and dying in the wild, or just potentially suffering in captivity. I don't presume to know which is better or worse from the whale's perspective, since it doesn't have one. Left as it was it would be dead by now and owing to human intervention it is alive, it comes down to whether we think one life is more or important less important than a moral precedent.

You have no idea about Orca's if you think that Keiko was a success. Springer had very little contact with humans, much less than Morgan. Her own family kicked her out, the whale's she's seen sometimes travelling with are very distant family and it's only the males she hangs around with reliably. She's not exactly thriving considering she doesn't have her own group and has got a pod that'd readily accept her.

Keiko was out in the "Wild" for 8 weeks from the moment they "Released" him to their admittance he was seeking human contact. He had lost a lot of weight in that time and probably didn't hunt all that much.

"I wish I could share your rosy vision of 'the little whale going to a place with other Orca's (sic)". She'll be pregnant in two years, psychotic in three and probably dead in four."

And you're examples are? Orca's are living longer and longer in captivity. They are not psychotic and if Morgan falls pregnant whilst at LP and not through Artificial Insemination, then it's completely natural. Orca's and all cetacean's are extremely sexual animals and of course that's going to end up in pregnancy.

I wish you could understand basic animal care and some common sense, you might just understand where a rational on-the-fence arguement is coming from. But hey, it's okay if she dies in the wild of starvation and illness when she could've lived a long life with great health care, enough food, companionship and a mentally stimulating environment.

Holland is light years ahead on many animal rights issues but on this one their system failed miserably.

...when she could've lived a long life with great health care, enough food, companionship and a mentally stimulating environment.

And of course you know all this as a fact.

Nature has its own way of keeping the population of apex predators in check, and the equation does not provide for our zealous intrusion, which normally ends up in tears. I second the comment above who favoured a humane ending of the animal's suffering, if anything.

I'm sorry but for the most part, zoos are like mental asylums for animals.

I visited a London Zoo a few years ago and was absolutely HORRIFIED at the state of the animals. They looked depressed and traumatised. I remember looking at a single Gorilla they had kept in a pathetically tiny enclosure. He just sat in the corner of his cell, staring into space.

These disgusting victorian relics need to be shut down immediately.

I will not be going to see an orca or any other creature at any type of amusement park and encourage others to boycott them also.

And this argument that 'they would die in the wild' is just too weird. Animals die in the wild all the frcikign time. That's life. They're born, they eat, they fight, they breed, they die, sometimes violent deaths at the hands of other animals. Sure, it might seem harsh for our contrived human sensibilities but that is actually how things work in the animal world, they are part of a beautiful natural food chain. Get over it.

We've got too used to seeing animals as cuddly toys and things to be owned, giving them names, sticking them in zoos, keeping monkeys, chimps, snakes, tigers and all sorts as pets. Basically, everything to try and assimilate them into our way of living, which quite frankly amounts to an evil joke given our disconnection with nature.....

This strategy really does sound all too familiar.

Orca calves do NOT turn up out of the blue by chance. Something has either happened to her pod or her mother and that's why she was alone in the first place. She was emaciated and sick. They had no option but to rescue her. It took a long time to get her back to health and she bonded to her carers in that time. She was also way to young to have a full dialect of her family, she had no knowledge of how to hunt fish and it's highly unlikely that we'd EVER find the correct pod.

I love orca. They're absolutely beauitful creatures but really the kindest thing to have done would have been to let her die and allow her to go back into the natural food chain of the animal kingdom. That way, nature, and not people would have benefitted.

For all the antropological studies that have ben done around animals and people to 'enhance OUR understanding of how THEY work', the world continues to implode in on itself. It doesnt stop human beings destroying that natural eco systems that causes problems such as mysteriously beached whales or the extinction of species. We need to just let nature alone and focus on our own destructive behaviours.

"Keiko was released into his native waters in Iceland and spent two months in the North Atlantic before swimming into a Norwegian fjord. He didnt do that on dead fish! Do yourself a favor and buy the DVD Keiko: The Untold Story."

He hardly ate at all, if at all- when he arrived in Norway he malnourished and had a distinctive
" peanut head ". Do yourself a favour and talk to Colin Baird - his former trainer / keeper - they stuffed him with fish from day 1. Tens of millions of dollars in order to further an ideal and it failed miserably.

There are three "types" of killer whales in Norwegian waters. Herring eaters, Mackrel eaters, and marine mammal eaters. The only thing they all have in common is that they hunt co-operatively ( essential when hunting schooling fish or marine mammals.

Fallacies from the so called support group

"Orcas are weaned from their mothers at about one year of age. Morgan is estimated to be between two and four years old. She is a fish-eating orca, which means she does not require the same level of cooperative hunting as the subspecies of orcas which eat other marine mammals"

See above regarding Norwegian orcas.
As it´s not even known which of the three morgan possibly is, how on earth is it going to be possible to "train" the animal to survive?

"The pen could be placed in an area frequented by other orcas."

Really? Most of the Norwegian orcas are frequenting the open ocean of the Norwegian and Barents seas - Tysfjord in North Norway ( where over 500 orcas regularly overwintered for 25 years) is no longer frequented - sightings in Tysfjord are practically zero for any sea pen placement, so it would have to be open sea, placing a sea pen in the open sea in a north norwegian winter is´nt an option.

"Once Morgan is placed in an area where related orcas tend to swim, it is likely that over the course of a year or two she will encounter relatives."

Disengenious rubbish - first of all, how will they know any orcas are related? That requires a long term DNA sampling program with all that entails, and secondly, where is the place where the relatives are swimming? For all intents and purposes the open sea.

What if they don’t reunite? The migration and feeding patterns of the Norwegian orcas have been shifting over the past few years, so finding her family may prove to be difficult.

There´s been a long term research project on Norwegian killer whales since 1987 - contact them and ask what they think of the above statement, once they pick themselves off the floor, they´ll tell you that it won´t be difficult to find Morgans family, it will be practically impossible

"Moving Morgan back to the ocean will of course entail costs".

It sure will - tens of millions ( See Keiko ) and as the orca swims off into the sunset, the feel good factor for all of the animal rights armchair activists will warm the cockles of their hearts with the memory of Morgan - whilst the animal dies a slow and lingering death from starvation - out of sight and out of mind.

In The Frozen Planet currently aring on the Beeb these chaps are always cast as the baddies. Flipping seals off of ice flows and harrying larger whales eventually tearing them apart.

It must be me but at first glance the image in the photo looked like a breast / nipple underwater; as I say it must be me.

The issue isn't whether the animal will be "in captivity" or performing for audiences. Animals have no concept of captivity or freedom, and they have no concept of dignity either. It's a well established fact that most captive animals, when given their freedom, refuse to accept it and prefer to remain where they are. There's a splendid passage in one of Gerald Durrell's books where he is forced to release all the animals he has just captured for his captive breeding programme, and they just sit in their cages refusing to go - because of course they prefer a safe and comfortable home with a dependable food supply to taking their chances in the wild. Who wouldn't?

The real issue is whether the conditions in which the animal will be kept are suitable for it and will keep it happy. If they are, then that animal has basically just won the orca equivalent of the lottery. If they are not, however, then that is when we have a problem. In the case of an enormous marine mammal like a killer whale it's very hard to argue convincingly that its needs will truly be met or that it can really live up to its full potential as it could in the wild. That is the real issue of concern here, not artificial anthropocentric concerns about freedom and captivity.

I am not sure they are being cast as "baddies".

They are doing what they do to survive.

@mollyminx; it is the dramatic breathy commentary by Mr Attenborough and the background music whenever these whales appear on screen that casts them in the baddies role. Clearly Killer Whales do what they best, nature red in tooth and claw.

Polar bear cubs are cuddly, penguins cute and funny and so on. Any animal that is being chased, harried, torn apart for food is the victim and has our sympathy. Simple as that.

Rachel24. You're obviously an intelligent and concerned person and I commend you on your bold and logical stance on this but I think the main bone of contention here is that most people believe that the Orca will suffer more in cpativity than it would if it were to take its chances in the wild. Whilst I fully understand your argument regarding the physical side of the animal's well-being I think it's a mistake to underestimate the emotional suffering of captive animals which very often manifests itself in physical reactions.

The fact is that no creature has a future in this anthropocentric world unless it can provide profit or entertainment (sadistic or otherwise) for humans. For that reason, it should be a cause for rejoicing when any species becomes extinct. It is certainly counter productive to support conservationist organisations such as the WWF, since they mostly exhibit the same mentality and indifference to the plight of individual sentient creatures.

The article in today's paper relating how Indonesians are pursuing orang utans with dogs and then hacking them to death made me deeply ashamed as a humane being.

If they weren't going to release it they should have left it to die. Without an aim to release it there was no justification for its rescue, let nature take its course.

I don't know where you're getting your information from Seasheep, but it's quite hilarious. Colin Baird speaks in Keiko: The Untold Story as he was one of Keiko's last caretakers and there's no mention anywhere of Mr Baird saying that Keiko was "stuffed with fish". When Keiko arrived in Norway he was assessed and deemed to be in great health.

Morgan's vocalizations were matched to a herring-eating population around Lofoten, Norway. Her relatives come from P pod. The people involved in Morgan's release plan had found the exact place to put her for rehabilitation - a small bay in Sto, where orcas have been seen frequenting the waters as close as just a few kilometres from the town.

Lots of people have offered vast amounts of money - including the community of Sto and residents from neighbouring towns - to rehabilitate Morgan, and they were aware that the rehabilitation could take years, but they were eager to do it anyway.

Also, there are known cases of orcas adopting relatives who have been orphaned. (Springer/A73, Canoona/A82, Rhapsody/J32, etc.) There is also a case of an orca in the north Atlantic who lost his dorsal fin and had his spine badly damaged after a run-in with a boat as a calf. For years it was believed that Stumpy had died, but then he was sighted, and being cared for by different pods of orcas. Here is the story.

Keiko himself mingled with orcas several times during his time of freedom, but being an adult male would have made integration into a pod very difficult. He died at the age of 26 or 27 - quite good for an orca who suffered years in captivity. The mean life expectancy of wild male orcas is 29.2 years (maximum 50-60 years).

I don't know where you're getting your information from Seasheep, but it's quite hilarious. Colin Baird speaks in Keiko: The Untold Story as he was one of Keiko's last caretakers and there's no mention anywhere of Mr Baird saying that Keiko was "stuffed with fish". When Keiko arrived in Norway he was assessed and deemed to be in great health.

From Colin Baird himself as well as another of his keepers. When Keiko arrived in Norway he was assesed by a number of people onsite as well as via media before the Free willy team arrived. Both a local vet and a Researcher deemed him to be malnourished - in addition, the FWKF veterinarian never visited the whale once, instead relying on blood sample analysis only. Hilarious indeed was the number of death threats from the US to anyone who dared to disagree with the Free willy / keiko ideal ..

Morgan's vocalizations were matched to a herring-eating population around Lofoten, Norway. Her relatives come from P pod. The people involved in Morgan's release plan had found the exact place to put her for rehabilitation - a small bay in Sto, where orcas have been seen frequenting the waters as close as just a few kilometres from the town.

Which recordings are you referring to? Andy footes or heike vesters? or someone elses?
Similarities to P group vocalisations were heard in the tapes but that means diddly squat - they were also similar to many other groups -Similarities between the norwegian NN group and Canadian west coast residents were also found some years back but only a numpty would postulate that they were closely related.

Regarding Sto - thats in itself is an absolute classic - Sto is a busy harbour and also happens to be the base for a whale watching business. Orcas are occassionally seen on the outskirts of the lofoten and Vesteralen islands - occassionally - frequent is a gross exaggeration.
And if you think Sto´s offer was anything other than the thought that it might improve tourism then I have a bridge for sale.

There is also a case of an orca in the north Atlantic who lost his dorsal fin and had his spine badly damaged after a run-in with a boat as a calf. For years it was believed that Stumpy had died, but then he was sighted, and being cared for by different pods of orcas

Alloparenting behaviour is well documented amondst certain Norwegian killer whales - it´s truly grasping at straws to base any decision on the off chance that Morgan may be assisted by other groups - and by the way - Do the freemorgan.nl people have permission to reproduce extracts of Jon stenersens book? I know he thought the whole Keiko circus was disgusting - I seriously doubt he would be too pleased to know his book was being used to further the aims of another circus

Keiko himself mingled with orcas several times during his time of freedom

Not in Norway he did´nt and Icelandic orcas ( his supposed relatives ) wanted nothing to do with keiko

Rachel24 and Albi Fan

please see the Orca Live website and the story of Springer a young whale that was separated from her family group some years ago and ended up out of her territory near Seattle. Springer is a success story instead of being shipped off to a marine park the decision was made to put her in an sea pen in her home territory. It wasn't long before whales came by and she was released, she was fully accepted back into the community and thrives in the wild today. There are many similarities between Springer and Morgan I had hoped that Morgan would avoid the fate of being held in a small tank and being used to sustain a breeding programme. So much research is done today on these whales we understand more about how they spend their whole lives with their immediate family groups but that also other members of the pod also have been known to accept orphaned or those whales that have lost family members into their group. Work had been done on sourcing Morgans dialect in whales in the wild which is how we know she came from Norway, I still believe Morgan stood a very good chance at being accepted and thriving in the wild. We can never know for sure of course but I do believe that her chance of survival in the wild far outweighs her chances in captivity.

For more on Springers story see the 2002 highlights on Orca Live if you love these creatures as much as I do, you will be moved by it.

Rachel, I agree completely that we anthropomorphize animals. But that is also the danger when we think of the ocean or forests as "brutal". Yeah, it would be brutal for you or I to be lost at sea, or dropped off in a forest somewhere. That's because physically speaking, humans are very weak animals. Orcas and all other wild animals spent millions of years co-evolving with their ecosystems. That is where they feel comfortable, just as you and I do in our homes. The probelm with captivity is that these are animals who evolved to travel perhaps hundreds of miles and have enormous home ranges, and in these intensely confined, tiny enclosures, they live a miserable life. This has been confirmed by studies. Just because they are kept alive and their organs are healthy, it does not mean they are able to exhibit natural behaviors and instincts.

Albi, you make some good points, however with home ranges as large as orcas, a life in captivity is not for them. They cannot live out their natural behaviors and, as a wildlife rehabber myself (also have a Master's in Environmental Studies) I believe it is better to take that chance of releasing them as soon as possible after the animal recovers. If they are fated to not live, that's nature for you. Animals die. I don't know where you get the 98 percent fail rating from, but I think we humans are patting ourselves on the back a bit too much in this case.

Jonathan, I have worked with wild animals and released them - they do not "refuse" to accept freedom when released, they simply freeze due to severe disorientation. You see this when they are first captured as well. Wild animals, having never seen the inside of a human structure, are extremely confused by the new surroundings. Similarly, after being in captivity, the sight of a wild place can disorient them temproarily. But once they warm up to it, in my experience, they cannot get back out there fast enough.

The incarceration of any wild creature is an abomination, unless it is confined in a wildlife sanctuary because of injury. Zoos only exist in order to make money. There are very few zoo animals that are released into the wild, and they rarely manage to survive for long.

The rabid conservationists of the WWF and other organisations have no respect whatsoever for individual creatures. Despite their claims to be working to protect the whales, the WWF states that “as soon as one can ensure a sustainable commercial harvest of the great whales under secure international control, then whaling will no longer be a WWF concern.” With friends like these, the whales don’t need enemies.

"A dolphin's smile is the greatest deception. It creates the illusion that they're always happy.” Richard O'Barry

First off, I feel I must mention that I have been working at an oceanarium for the past 4 years, and I thus support the potential educational value of zoos & similar facilities with captive animals. Not everyone can go off into a tropical jungle, or visit an African safari, or go diving in coral reefs, to experience nature in all its grandeur; as such, there is a definite need to make nature more accessible to the general public in order to foster an appreciation of the living world. It is a fact that people generally will not go out of their way to protect something they care little about, and if something is unknown to them, why indeed should they be expected to care for it?

Having said that, I am completely against the keeping of whales & dolphins in captivity. These animals rely heavily on sonar to navigate the open oceans; in fact, they're evolved to live in a habitat which knows no boundaries. Placing them in concrete or acrylic tanks is akin to torture for them, since it causes their sonar to go haywire, with all the sound bouncing off the walls of their enclosure. Early dolphinariums had their animals dying weekly, and it was only some time later when the staff figured out that the noise from the filter was causing them stress 24/7.

The tank water is also unhealthy, since it is heavily chlorinated. Ever noticed how clean the tanks seem in those dolphin shows, and how clear the water is? Chlorine does that; without it, the water would go murky from algae. Now, fish tanks cannot be chlorinated because that would kill the fish, but the sea mammals do not breathe it in, so they do not die. However, they do swim, sleep, eat & drink in it, and that causes problems. Marine mammals are given special eye drop solutions everyday to alleviate a chlorine-related condition which still eventually causes the animals to go blind.

These are just a couple of reasons why keeping marine mammals like orcas in captivity is nothing but detrimental to these animals. I can only support captivity if the animal has been shown to adapt readily to ex situ conditions; whales do not meet this requirement, thus it would be best to partake in a whale-watching activity instead if one wishes to see them. In fact, some dolphins seem to actually enjoy this activity (boat watching).

Rachel, I find it ironic that you mentioned that "we are all anthropomorphising this whale... how helpful is this", and then you proceed to give an idealized, anthropocentric view of the benefits of captivity for this whale. What you consider "brutal" by human standards is quite natural for these whales. Hunting, being hunted (by natural predators), learning to avoid danger... these animals are what they are today because of the selective pressures that their natural habitats have exerted on them over the course of millions of years. They are supremely adapted for life in the open ocean, not for an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It is similar to why depriving a person of his freedom by throwing him in prison is an extreme form of punishment: we were never meant to live in a 3x3x3 concrete box.

And the fact that whales cannot fathom a human concept such as freedom should not matter. Being the (supposedly) more intelligent species, it should be enough that we understand, and that we are responsible enough to use what we know wisely and ethically.

..which Morgan will be making full use of...and having a "whale" of a time...sorry

Seriously I agree with those who think the Dutch are being stupid. The animalshould be released ino the ocean.