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2 Killer Whales and 12 Dolphins Abandoned at Closed Marine Park (people.com)
submitted 1 week ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/world@quokk.au
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[-] abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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

[-] nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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_C._Marshall_Institute

this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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