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 tremendous complications for release with animals as family focused as orcas.
Despite some similarities, Morgan's situation is different from that of Luna, a young male orca who became isolated in the Nootka Sound area of Vancouver Island, Canada. In that instance, Luna was never taken into captivity of any form and no official attempts were made to rehabilitate him back into the orca society he came from. Luna died when he was presumed to be run over by a tugboat. Luna's case does show, however, that a young stranded orca is capable of surviving and hunting on its own, an argument that the Dolphinarium attempted to ignore.
Despite the original agreement that she would not be shown to the public, Morgan was displayed by the Dolphinarium only two months after she was taken into captivity. The dolphinarium made no attempt to pursue any rehabilitiation and release plan despite the arguments of the Free Morgan Foundation that Morgan was an excellent candidate for a rehabilitation attempt similar to the successful rehabilitation of Springer.
Support for Morgan's release has also come from another group called the The Orca Coalition (comprising seven organisations), which has employed a lawyer through funding raised by donations. The Orca Coalition is now intending to confront the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation to prevent Morgan from being transferred to another marine mammal captive facility and instead for her to be moved to the proposed site of the sea-pen (Deltapark Neeltje Jans in The Netherlands), where she can begin her rehabilitation.
Great emphasis is placed on finding the family or home range of rehabilitated animals of all species which are returned to the wild. The advantage for the animals is wide-ranging and can have many spin-offs to assist them in their return. This includes the social support and local knowledge (such as places to find food). Orca are well known for their strong social networks, with some populations having such strong bonds that individuals only join a