Morgan (orca)

Morgan (born c. 2007) is a female orca who was rescued in the Wadden Sea, off the northwestern coast of the Netherlands in June 2010.

After it became clear that the basin at Dolfinarium was too small, multiple options were considered, including releasing Morgan and transferring her to another facility.

Harderwijk Dolfinarium stated that they wished to ship Morgan to another marine mammal park after an independent team of experts concluded that she was not a suitable candidate for release into the wild.

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 in the film Free Willy.

The Canadian and United States governments have also successfully released and reintegrated a rescued orca named A73, better known Springer, a situation which bore certain similarities to that of Morgan.

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.

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.

Support for Morgan's release has also come from another group called The Orca Coalition (comprising seven organisations), which has employed a lawyer through funding raised by donations.

Great emphasis is placed on finding the family or home range of rehabilitated animals of all species which are returned to the wild.

Morgan has been identified as belonging to the Norwegian fish-eating orca community (based on DNA analysis and supporting evidence from acoustical matching).

On Wednesday, October 12, 2011, Agricultural Secretary Henk Bleker announced that Morgan would be transferred to a Spanish marine park known as Loro Parque.