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Morgan is a female orca who was rescued in the Wadden Sea, off the northwestern coast of the Netherlands in June 2010. She was found in terrible condition, severely underweight and malnourished. She lived several months in the Dolfinarium Harderwijk in the Netherlands. After it became clear that she could not be released to the wild because her pod wasn't able to be located, the Dolfinarium worked hard to find another facility for her because their basin was too small. However, activists set up a battle and went to court. The whole business extended Morgan's time at the Dolfinarium and she spent a year longer in her small basin. Eventually the court decided that she was to be moved and she was transported to the Loro Parque in Spain.
The orca, now named Morgan, was administered medical assistance and provided with food. The reason for the orca's capture was emaciation (weighing approximately 430 kg) and likely also dehydration. Her body length was 3.5 m.
Controversy surrounds Morgan, as she was rescued with the provision that she was not to be displayed to the public and that she would be released back into the wild when she had recovered. However, the Harderwijk Dolfinarium and the Free Morgan Foundation, composed of independent international experts, have come to loggerheads over Morgan's future. The Free Morgan Foundation includes the orca research and education organisations of Orcalab, Orca Network, Orca Research Trust, Centre for Whale Research, and Project SeaWolf Coastal Protection. It also includes the conservation and animal welfare groups the Cetacean Society International, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island, as well as their affiliated scientists and experts.
Currently, the Harderwijk Dolfinarium has advised that they wish to ship Morgan to another captive marine mammal facility after an independent team of experts concluded that she is not a suitable candidate for release into the wild. Yet the Free Morgan Foundation presented a detailed rehabilitation and release plan which to date (June 2011) has not openly been considered by those who hold her.
The Free Morgan Foundation rehabilitation and release plan included a number of phases with contingency plans. The plan incorporated a ‘soft-release’ where Morgan would first be moved to a sea-pen and care for her would continue. The process would, should her health allow, also involve taking Morgan out into the open sea to increase her fitness and reacquaint her with the area. During that time she would be provided with food whilst she continued to readapt to the wild (somewhat like a half-way house for people who are in the process of reintegrating into society).
An attempt to release a captive orca back into the wild has only been conducted once – resulting in a partial success for Keiko, the star of the Free Willy movie. The Canadian and United States governments have also successfully released and reintegrated a rescued orca named A73, or Springer, a situation which bore certain similarities to that of Morgan. Springer, like Morgan, was found alone, many miles from where her family pod is resident and in an emaciated condition. After being kept in a sea pen in Puget Sound and nursed back to health, Springer was then transferred to a sea pen off of northern Vancouver Island from where she was ultimately released. She successfully reintegrated with a resident British Columbia orca pod and is still with that pod today.
Morgan's case, however, has some key differences to that of Springer. The Northern Resident population of orcas which Springer is a part of have been intensively studied for many decades, with all individuals and the majority of family relations known to researchers. Although Morgan has been reliably established to be a member of the Norwegian fish eating population from call analyses, it has proved impossible to establish her family group. This has treme