The Real Free Willy: Should Captive Orcas Be Released into the Wild?

According to D. Stanley Eitzen and Maxine Baca Zinn, society uses norms and values to make everyday decisions with interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships within cultures. In effect, cultural societies use emotions to help decide what is right or wrong. These feelings result in dominant ideology-ideology that is defined as being supported and reproduced by societies. Sociologist W.I. Thomas stated "If a person defines a situation as real, it is real in it consequences"
Perhaps no other medium can evoke what Thomas explains more so than motion picture films. A major feature film "Free Willy" touched the hearts of people world wide and evoked a sort of dominant ideology-one that fired emotions in viewers to advocate the freedom of Keiko, the movie's star. The film debuted in 1993 and told of a boy freeing a captive orca. The film fostered an outcry from societies around the country to release captive orcas and Keiko had become a celebrity around the world.

This outcry led to the financial sponsorship of Keiko and, as a result, the Oregon Coast Aquarium became his home in 1995 so that he could heal and regain his strength. For the first time in history, a longtime captive orca was going to be re-released into the wild. As a result of these efforts, Keiko was in for the journey of his life after 21 years of being in captivity. Was this a step to free our hearts and minds of wrong doing to such a magnificent animal? Was it the right thing to do? Society must ask these questions. Although Keiko had the best care money could buy and received unsurpassed rehabilitation efforts for his freedom, was Keiko ever free? After all, in the end, Keiko died from pneumonia on December 12th , 2003 in Iceland.

Presented is an overview of why captive orcas must not be introduced or reintroduced into the wild. It is stressed that long term captive or captive-born orcas do not posses the survival instincts necessary for endurance in the wild because they have been domesticated by humans and any effort to release them is unethical and it can spell disaster to these magnificent mammals. Crucial skills are lacking in these whales.

Captive orcas lack essential skills highly needed to sustain life and for acceptance in the wild. Navigational, communicational and social skills are critical to an orca in the wild. Orcas in captivity do not utilize their navigational skills nor do they have full use of their communication skills. It is these skills that are necessary to sustain life in the wild. They also do not develop the social skills needed for orca pod acceptance in the open seas. To an orca, a pod is defined as an intimate family-like close family is to humans.

Orcas produce sounds for different reasons and researchers have identified sixty-two noticeably different sounds. Orcas use sound for echolocation much like that of the dolphin and it is their way of seeing underwater. These sonar-like sound waves give them valued information about their surrounding as their echoes return. Echolocation is also used for finding food and navigating through the water. This high-energy clicking may be composed of several hundred bursts in seconds and orcas also use these sounds for communication in the open sea.

Their conversations may consist of a collection of penetrating whistles, squeaks and high-pitched calls that aids them in maintaining contact with one another even if they are separated by miles. Orcas vocalize more as their activity levels increase.
It is these skills and habits that are not used while in captivity and it is also why so much money and effort focused on Keiko and his release. Scientists have determined that the communication languages fluctuate and are unique in each pod group. Further, orcas survive in a sort of territory that is often along a coastline and come inland to feed, primarily, on salmon and are classified as Resident pods.

These Resident pods are, coincidentally, blamed for salmon mortality in the Pacific Northwest. Transient pods are ones that travel approximately 900 miles or more along the coast line and hunt larger prey such as seals and other whales with the grey whales being their primary target. The ability of orcas to communicate with members of another community or another form is quite limited. "However, captive orcas can and do learn other dialects." Because of distinct and unique dialects among pods, researchers are able to link captive orcas with their pods from which they originated, a very valuable research tool to scientists.

As with most all wild species, the fear of humans must be ever-present for survival. One reason for Keiko's failure to adapt after his release was that he did not ever develop the fear of human activities; he was still being trained at sea by humans and he was psychological dependent of humans. Kelly Waples and Clifford Stagoll's Journal of Bioscience article iterates that "for the general public, there is an intuitive appeal to an animals living in the wild rather than in captivity. Rarely, however, is it an appeal informed by careful scientific or ethnical analysis." Again, societal Ideology plays a role.

The processes of releasing an animal to its native habitat is often idealized and assumed to be necessary by the general public without the consideration of the consequences the animal may face. Ideally Keiko should swim to freedom and live happily ever after. However, these animals face the likelihood of peril. Waples and Stagoll's article further iterates that "Deterioration of survival skills comes about because the needs of captive animals are provided for in such a way that they do not need to use or practice these skills as they would in the wild."

Keiko, therefore, did not likely use navigational or communicational skills while in captivity and should not have been released into the wild since his aquariums did not provide him with the social skills necessary for recognition from other marine life. Keiko is a good example of an animal not having the skills for life in the open sea. For instance, when his trainers began training him to eat live prey, he played with it instead of eating it. On one occasion, when a crab was introduced to Keiko, he balanced it on his nose and played with it. (Humane Society)! This further demonstrates that the only communicational skills known to Keiko were those of entertainment.

Captive orcas do not develop the fear, or have the instinct to be threatened by human activities as they would in the wild. Interestingly, however, there have been incidences of wild orcas approaching boats and humans. By nature, orcas are very receptive to humans and act just like the familiar dolphins seen in theme park performances. Likewise, captive orcas will continue to seek out humans for attention and direction because this is all they have ever known.

Before Keiko's death, there were concerns about him seeking out boats and human contact. According to a statement made by a reporter for US News and World Report, "Keiko, the star of the Free Willy Movies, swims in fjord some 250 miles northwest of Oslo. He is free now but seems to prefer humans to whales". Another example from Earth Island Institute stated that Kieko was embraced by people in Halsa Community, inside a Norwegian fjord, and people came throughout Europe to see him.

Orcas are a species that exhibits very strong societal organization. They provide for, journey and live their entire lives together. Orcas are comprised societies of there own and form tight intimate family units called pods with as many as fifty whales within the pod group. These pods persistist from one generation to the next because they live their entire lives within the pod they were born. Smaller pod units known as maternal groups are formed with the females being central. A mother orca is rarely separated from her calves by more than a few body lengths.

Since orcas only give birth every four to six years, with pregnancies lasting up to seventeen month, facilitates and builds the strong bonds within the orca pods. Females give birth in their teens but do not stray very far from their mothers. It is thought that the mother plays a grandparent role similar to humans in helping the young female care for her calf. A female orca can give birth to four to six young over their lifetime and this is also believed to strengthen the bond between the orcas within the pod. Furthermore, orca pods feed together during hunts and become team players by literally driving prey into the mouths of other pod members.

"Eye witnesses in Antarctica report seeing two orcas tip an ice floe, sliding its unfortunate occupant, a sleeping seal, into the jaws of a third whale". Another pod was seen tearing chunks and devouring a blue whale for hours until the pod reorganize and changed directions, leaving the blue whale caring for the wounds inflicted by the pod. This hunt, for example, was performed by a transient pod. Orcas need their pods for survival and socialization.

Captive orcas do not have these bonds held within the wild orca societies, making introduction far more complicated, regardless if they are a known relative pod. In one instance, Kieko was introduced to his family line but was never fully accepted by his relative pod. The social and survival functions of a pod are phenomenal. Orcas are very social animals and they develop their socialization very similar to humans. Orca pods socialize and are taught by the group what is expected from the time they are born. They learn their way of life through examples set by the other pod members.

There are so many different aspects in socialization between individuals. The only difference between humans and orcas is that human society is heavily influenced by the media, other cultures and organizations. Eitzen and Zinn state "The socialization process is one of the ways by which individuals internalize the norms and values of the group". This is also a critical aspect of an orcas life, as previous examples of pods were cited. They go on to say that "people are taught what is proper, moral, and appropriate". A sociological effect on society seeks fair and just law.

These effects dictate how society uses its norms and values to make its everyday decisions with interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships within its cultures. We do as we were taught and we are raised to believe certain societal values. Individuals need and long to have a sense of belonging. There are societal values that question whether freedom is right or wrong and these beliefs, it is indicated, were passed on in Keiko's situation.

Keiko, like many others, was captured when he was young. According to Keiko FAQ on the organization's website, in 1979 Keiko was roughly one and a half years old when he was captured and taken to Saedyrasfnid, an Icelandic aquarium where he was held captive for nearly three years. Then in 1982, Keiko was bought by Marineland in Ontario, Canada. He was about four years old when trainers began training him and he started performing for the public eye.

In 1985, Marineland sold Keiko for $350,000 to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City. It was here that Keiko began his filming career with Warner Brothers in 1992 "Free Willy" and the sequels that followed. The film was released in 1993 and it was a box office hit. Accounting these years that Keiko was handled and trained by people would be an estimated fourteen years. From the time he was captured at approximately the age of two, he spent most of his time being trained, fed and cared for by humans.

The orca's socializations and vocalization with humans is phenomenal. They are effortlessly trained to perform an assortment of entertaining stunts on cue from their trainers for the public. Orcas are known to be highly intellectual and are easily taught how to go and get objects, leap, and do aerobatics with their trainers, either with their trainers on their backs or swimming with them in the pool water.

On September 2, 2003, Keiko experienced a major setback to his reintroduction to the wild as he pursued a Norwegian fishing vessel and entered a small harbor in Norway where he interacted with several vessels and the public. They had clearly presented Keiko with food and had even entered the water with him; a few people were spotted climbing on his back, according to Keiko's staff that monitored him. Furthermore, a man and his daughter were out rowing in their boat when Keiko appeared. Keiko followed them back to their dock and remained there for a couple of days where they had feed him some tossed fish. This clearly indicates Keiko was lonely and longing for human attention.

Keiko trainers had clearly voiced their concerns about Keiko. According to Ric O'Barry, a cetacean freedom activist warned that Keiko had been captive far too long and was too dependent on human companionship to even be considered as a good release candidate. But the dramatic ending of the film, showing the orca leaping a breakwater to escape his captors, caught the public imagination that Keiko in real life could be free.

Society must come face to face with the harsh reality of releasing a captive orca. Currently, there are no sanctuaries for captive orcas because orcas in particular, have extremely specialized care necessities, and are extremely costly to maintain. At this time, an economically sound sanctuary has not been established with sufficiently qualified staff. Keiko's flight alone to Iceland cost approximately $370,000, which was paid to the Air Force. All in all, it cost an estimated 1.8 million to run the reintroduction program in 2002.

Richard and Lauren Donner, the producers of Free Willy, invested their profits from movies and the two sequels. This was approximately $10 million. Additionally, small donors gave as much as $5 million and Craig McCaw, a telecommunications billionaire, gave approximately $15 million over an eight year period (Humane Society). In 2000, money and donations begin to diminish for Keiko because he still could not feed himself. Keiko's main donor, Craig McCaw, lost most of his fortune in the stock market and sadly had to cancel his support. The media began to dwindle away from Keiko. Finally, in 2001, Keiko's caretakers, known as Ocean Futures, began to believe Keiko may never go free. In an effort to cut costs, the team began giving up their equipment because hopes for Keiko's freedom were diminishing.

Then in July 2002, Ocean Futures turned to the Humane Society of the United States because of depleted funding. The Society replaced Keiko's original care team. The team escorted Keiko to sea by boat and it is noted that Keiko did not return to his bay pen for fifteen days. When Keiko did return, the Humane Society staff decided this would be his last hand-fed meal in an effort to further remove Keiko from human contact. Keiko was seen twice by the Humane Society staff in July and was tracked by a radio transmitter where he was located near the Faroe Islands in August 2002. Fans of the movies and on-lookers kept Keiko at bay and researchers cited the marine mammal protection act in an effort to halt their frolicking with the whale.

This act, passed by US congress in 1972, did not prevail all to well with Keiko's situation. Wild orcas must face dangers that are further beyond this protection act, and orcas remain susceptible to human activities as they have to share their ocean waters and food resources. This and other factors may limit the number of orcas currently in the wild. The navy's sonar's are currently being researched and are thought to be playing a role in the orcas' decline because the sonar's appear to be interfering with their acute hearing and navigational skills. The increasing numbers of boats in the ocean are also a suspected cause.

Moreover, a bigger threat to them is pollution. They are living on contaminated fish and other aquatic prey and this contamination ends up stored in their blubber. Furthermore, Japan, Norway and the Soviet Union continue to perform commercial whaling according to Kieran Mulvaney. Therefore, releasing captive whales into these habitats will leave them significantly more vulnerable than their wild counter partners because as stated earlier they are raised in pumped purified waters and feed antibiotics as well being feed herring filled with vitamins.

According to a marine scientist for the Humane Society, Naomi Rose, iterates "When U.S. facilities close, the operators can't just release their former charges back into the wild. They must find a place for them, and that place is often in those foreign countries that harbor less-than-ideal captive facilities" Rose further states "The captive-born Hoaka, on the other hand, is a less ideal candidate for reintroduction to the wild". Her feelings further suggest that captive orcas should not be released into the wild without proper research and ethnical considerations.

The Keiko Project was a gargantuan effort and it was unlike any earlier wildlife rehabilitation project. Many important benefactors, such as Warner Brothers, the Wendy P. McCaw foundation and other high profile supporters, made it all possible. Other orcas are in the media but on a small and localized scale. For example, an orphaned orca in the Puget Sound was on the news temporarily, but did not get the media attention that Keiko did. The orca was returned to its pod by boat in July, 2002 without further word of the incident. Not all researchers feel orcas are doomed, however.

Jeremy Smith, a writer for Ecologist, has charged that the health and survival rates have been increasing among the captive born orca population. Smith's chart shows that all together there are currently 49 orcas held in captivity. Of this number there are currently 26 captive born orcas verses the 23 born in the wild currently held captive. There have been 135 whales captured for marine parks since 1961. Out of the 135 whales captured 110 have died over the years. The capture of orcas (in US waters) was halted after the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 passed.

A world leading expert on whales, biologist Roger Payne, studies marine mammals, particularly the interrelationship with whales and humans and the explorations of sociology and of culture mythology. Payne states "for someone of my own personal views it is hard to put forward this kind of argument, since my inclination is to release all animals that are held in cages and aquariums. I believe, however, that is an irresponsible stand-a kind of easy way out, a chance to relieve one's sense of guilt without taking responsibility for the brutal consequences of one's actions".

Even though our hearts tell us to release these animals society must stop and consider the consequences, either good or bad, because this is an irresponsible action just base on emotions alone. For captive orcas to survive, scientific data is needed to prove that these animals could survive exceedingly well without human interaction or intervention. Releasing these captive whales into the wild could have serious consequences. Payne also iterated "It is often of great value to base a course of action on sentiment but I feel that in this case it would ultimately prove deadly for several of the whale species".

Emotions can override our thought process because we feel this is the correct and moral action. However, this is not necessarily true. Again, researchers must clarify the ramifications of the actions about to take place. Alternative placements must be sought out to make positive placements available. For example, why not make aquarium tanks bigger and sound proof from the public's interactions with the captive orcas?

An article, Captive Killer Whales, quotes a statement made by Daniel Odell of Sea World. "Our killer whales live in habitats where the water quality and temperature are carefully monitored and controlled". These captive orcas have lived, some since birth, in these controlled waters. Releasing them into the ocean can bring their small lymphatic immune system more harm than good because they may not be able to fight of infections as easily as a wild orca that has never been exposed to controlled waters.

Captive orcas have a different diet than orcas in the wild and their immune systems differentiate as well. Captive orcas do not have to deal with parasites or unfiltered waters. If they were release into the wild they run a higher risk of dying from the dangers in the ocean that their immune systems have never been exposed to. Smith states "The only significant knowledge that can ever be gained by studying captive orcas is how best to keep the whales in captivity". There are other options to freeing an orca that just releasing them into the wild.

Researchers can do further research on these animals to better serve their captivity environments. For example, bigger tanks could be made for them with greater water depths where they could use their navigational and echolocation skills, plus, instead of feeding the orcas dead fish for example they could be feed live herring. By nature, the orca has a small lymphatic system for their massive size and, therefore, their immune systems are not as tolerant of diseases, pollutants or parasites.

Orcas, born in the wild, struggle to survive and have been considered for being placed on Endanger Species list. Additionally, their numbers are declining in the wild but not quite enough to be considered endangered. Placing captive orcas into these environmental conditions would be disastrous.

Wild orcas eat live food such as salmon and other live animals. These animals that they are eating have also been exposed to these environmental hazards such as toxic levels of PCB's are found in fish and other food sources such as plankton or bottom dwelling fish. For example, a dead whale off the coast of the Puget Sound area was examined and they found great numbers of toxicants of PCB levels stored in the whales blubber and blood stream. Furthermore, wild orcas retain their vitamins only from their environment and the food they eat. They are not exposed to antibiotics like the captive orcas.

Smith stated "Diet is defrosted dead fish (usually herring) supplemented with vitamins, minerals and a wide variety of antibiotics". Finally, the media plays an immense role in shaping how we perceive our societal practices and values. They only give us half the information needed to evaluate situations as a society. We idealize that the situation will be handled and we tend to ignore the situation because we are ill informed. If we were well informed, as a society, we might look for a solution to the problem that would work from the beginning. According to sociologists, "this ever greater concentration of the media in the hands of a few has several important consequences.

First, it results in an ideological monopoly; that is, newspapers, magazines, television, and radio offer little variety in perspective and editorial policy, ranging from centrist to moderately conservative. There is an unquestioned acceptance…" Entertainment is the key word for the media. Society feels they are being told the whole story but they are not.

Media gives us Entertainment, like the film "Free Willy" where the young boy sets Willy free into the ocean. This is fantasy and it played out with Keiko and his situation. Society cannot think that simply releasing captive orcas into the ocean and assume they are free from captivity. As expressed by sources herein, these captive orcas do not know how to belong. As one observer puts it, "the result is that the media cartel keeps us fully entertained and permanently half-informed". Furthermore, according to Christine K. Eckstrom, "in 1965 the last whaling station was closed in South Georgia, Antarctica not only because whaling became unprofitable but because new sensibility about wildlife and the limits of natural resource". Societies began to see the effects and therefore, an immediate change was required.

The benefits of captive orcas are numerous. They have educated people, and because of the scientific studies were proficient in discovering what was unknown about these magnificent animals and diminished the myths held by societies before the first captive orca and were once thought of as cold blooded killers of the sea. However, captive orcas have changed society's views and perceptions of this magnificent animal. People have been able to observe the orcas abilities to adapt before an audience of people who may have never encountered them at close range to understand and witness their high intellect and spirit.

Gordon and Flaherty stated "the steady technical enhancements have extended the captive orcas life span to more than twenty years". Research is done on trained orcas to observe their behaviors and echolocations that are rather difficult to observe in wild. Researchers are able to take samples of their body fluids and exhaled air to grant significant information as to their reproduction and genetic makeup. Furthermore, Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the famous oceanic explorer Jacque Cousteau, was with Keiko throughout his release venture. Cousteau stated that, because of Keiko, there is a better understanding of the orca inhabitants that was previously unknown because Keiko was their information bank.

Although society's perceptions have changed about the orcas, so has the compassion of these animals remaining captive for human entertainment.
Captive orcas cannot survive in the wild without human contact and we should seek alternative methods and do further research into the lives and habits of these animal. The orcas that have been born in captivity should remain there because without them we would not have all of the knowledge and data we do today as well as the educational benefit to society.

Currently there is no talk of releasing other captive orcas into the wild because there is not the fame, or the financial backing to do so. Keiko's release endeavor taught the research community that release efforts as well as training for a captive orca is a vastly immense responsibility and can literally take years either with success or with failures.