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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?
Here you go:
As compared to their current situation?
The alternative is... they starve to death, after cannibalizing each other?
Are you a marine biologist?
I'm not. I'm just quoting a website where marine biologist are weighing in on the subject.
So unless you are one, then maybe let's consider it's more complex than we think it is?
You ever try doing that with a subject you're not super knowledgeable about?
I posed what I said as a question for a reason.
... To indicate uncertainty.
Sorry if you're used to only being asked rhetorical questions, but sometimes people still ask genuine, earnest questions... when they are not speaking from authority, do not fully grasp all the complexities and potential options and their trade-offs, and is seeking an actual answer.
Questions are fine.
There's not much to go off the way you composed your comment, and given that much of the discussion that followed from others was disingenuous, are you surprised I assumed more of the same?
The original post in this particular comment chain seems to me to be to reasonable questions, again seeming to me to be asked by someone not attempting to pose as any kind of expert.
You then replied with some more information.
I asked my own genuine question.
You responded with hostility and accusations.
...
Yes, yes I am surprised by your behavior, normally people don't make a whole bunch of assumptions and act hostile toward people based on things they have not said nor really even implied.
The main problem of course is that Orcas are social animals and that the Orca released into the wild would need to find a pod (group/family) willing to accept it and teach it their ways.
From the article:
Japan: there's some good eating on those things!
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
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
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:
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=George_C._Marshall_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
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.