This is at Marineland Antibes in France, in case anyone else was wondering.
this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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Why exactly can they not be released into the wild?
Also why is nobody being held criminally liable for the negligence of care?
the reason, is inbreeding , and deleterious alleles can enter the wild gene pool, so it harms the population more than it helps. thats why tigers arnt released in the wild for the same reason.
Here you go:
Releasing captive orcas into the wild is not as simple as opening a gate. While the idea of returning these magnificent creatures to their natural environment tugs at the heartstrings, the reality is fraught with challenges and potentially fatal consequences. The primary reasons captive orcas can’t be simply released include: lack of essential survival skills, social integration difficulties, potential for disease transmission, psychological and physiological adaptations to captivity, and ethical considerations regarding their well-being. These factors intertwine to create a situation where release, while seemingly humane, could ultimately be more detrimental than remaining in human care, even with its acknowledged limitations.
The alternative is... they starve to death, after cannibalizing each other?
From the article:
the whales, who were born in captivity and cannot be released into the wild
The government did not approve of a plan to send Wikie and Keijo to Japan, and an attempt to rehome them in Spain was denied by the Spanish government, according to the BBC.
The fate of the 12 dolphins is still unclear.
The article doesn't really explain why though.
Captive-born dolphins have been successfully released into the wild before, see for example: https://www.thedodo.com/another-seaworld-myth-debunked-751539462.html
"Annessa, a captive-born Atlantic bottle-nose dolphin held at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, disappeared and was feared lost during a hurricane in August, 1992. Annessa survived the hurricane, however, and was adopted by a pod of wild dolphins. She has been sighted numerous times - healthy and foraging on her own. One dolphin; Captive since birth; followup successful."
Edit: Oops https://whalescientists.com/captive-dolphins-release/ were still wild born. Replaced with a better example
https://enviroliteracy.org/why-cant-you-release-captive-orcas/#The_Challenges_of_Reintegration
Why Can’t You Just Release Captive Orcas?
The question of releasing captive orcas into the wild is a complex one, riddled with ethical, practical, and scientific challenges. The simple answer to “Why can’t you just release captive orcas?” is that they are unlikely to survive, let alone thrive, in the open ocean after a lifetime of human care. This is due to a multitude of factors, ranging from their lack of necessary survival skills to the psychological impacts of captivity, making the prospect of successful reintegration a difficult, and often impossible, undertaking.
So a couple of thoughts here.
First of all, the page itself just correctly warns that orcas can't just be freed. It's not like we should go ahead and literally dump them into the ocean and abandon them. No one is advocating for this. Doing this generally with most types of animals still causes all kinds of problems (see for example https://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/07/23/snakehead.poison/index.html )
On the flip side, when a well prepared effort is launched, captive orcas have survived in the wild successfully. See https://killerwhales.fandom.com/wiki/Vasilievna for a good example - and this is what folks are pushing for.
Finally, I have some concerns about the source itself. From https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental/_Literacy/_Council it seems that enviroliteracy.org is part of the George C. Marshall Institute.
In case you don't know much about that institute, here's the most important bits:
The George C. Marshall Institute (GMI) is a "non-profit" organization funded by the profits from oil and gas interests and right-wing funders (listed later). It has received substantial funding from Exxon's Exxon Education Foundation.
Its nominal creators, aside from Exxon-related entities and others, were William Nierenberg, Frederick Seitz and Robert Jastrow. This industry and right-wing front group
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George%5C_C.%5C_Marshall%5C_Institute
Lol yeah I know what the article says, my question is a direct response to that first quote. They don't follow up with why so I was wondering if someone here knows.
I replied further down with more info about it.
Oh I didn't realize it was the same username. Already upvoted that, thank you!
They can be, albeit that it may require some serious $$$ to actually do it the right way, but it's been done before, the most famous example being https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/latest/blogs/story-keiko-first-captive-orca-returned-wild/
Edit: and for dolphins born in captivity, see https://www.thedodo.com/another-seaworld-myth-debunked-751539462.html
our cruelty to animals is endless.