Tuesday, June 7, 2016

The Morgan Monitor Who filmed The Escape Behavior Provides More First Hand Details about the Orca

This week, controversial video footage gathered by the anonymous "Morgan Monitors" was posted by the DolphinProject and picked up by major news media. The "Monitors" are seeking justice for the young killer whale who was captured & betrayed by the Dutch Dolfinarium Harderwijk and shipped to Loro Parque, in the Canary Islands, Spain, with the help of SeaWorld, from the United States. If that sounds like whale laundering, read THIS


To LINK to & DOWNLOAD this WHITE PAPER, click HERE 

The footage shows Morgan distressed and beaching herself on the stage area at "Orca Ocean," the circus style arena at the theme park. 


The story made global headlines with articles appearing at media sights including PEOPLE, TIME, Mashable, Russian TV, FOX News, the Telegraph, and more. Some headlines were overtly sensational & the responses from Loro Parque and SeaWorld claiming that Morgan was exhibiting "normal behavior" were patently false. 


One video, posted at Sky News, caught the attention of the anonymous "Morgan Monitor" who actually filmed the distressed orca. The video is linked here:


Within hours & via Twitter, the anonymous Morgan Monitor reached out to the former SeaWorld trainer who provided the analysis seen in the video. With permission, this information is being shared, below: 



to:jmventre
date:Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 1:06 PM
subject:Regarding Morgan Video


Hi...  I took the footage of Morgan. 
What you said in the interview on Sky news was spot on... 
I wish there was some way I could get it out to the media that this was not a suicide attempt,
but without my identity being exposed... So here is my unpublished blog, which may give you a better idea of what led to her jumping out. 

A visit to Loro Parque 16th May 2016: 
Morgan the female orca has captured the hearts of many around the world. She was spotted swimming alone in waters of the Netherlands. She was extremely underweight but swimming freely. She was captured by a local theme park (Dolfinarium Harderwijk), under a Dutch Government issued ‘rescue, rehabilitation and release’ permit. The theme park failed to fulfill the rehabilitation and release part of the permit.
She was trained and kept in a life of captivity. Morgan now spends her life in Loro Parque on the island of Tenerife. Here she is constantly attacked, and the male [Keto] tries to mate with her.  The Free Morgan Foundation was formed to get Morgan back to her family in Norway. Morgan has suffered a significant injustice most of her life. This visit was to follow up on Morgan after the release of footage of her violently banging her head against the gate of the med pool a few weeks earlier. The last show Morgan made her first appearance of the day. The show arena was not as full as it had been earlier that day. Video footage was taken of the show; the first part of the footage shows a splash and 3 orcas going under the water, It seemed like some kind of scramble or attack by two orcas on the other one (Morgan). 
The following moment Morgan jumped and beached herself onto the concrete. Her breathing was rather shallow; her vocals seemed stressed and sounded as though she was in pain, even more so each time she lifted her head. 
The first part of the video...  shot of her beached lasted over 2 minutes, and the trainers did not attend to her. Most of the audience seemed to think that this was the ending of the show; many took selfies with Morgan suffering in the background. I then decided to video again as Morgan was still in the same position still showing signs of shallow breathing and severe discomfort. Now people were leaving, I moved around taking footage until I had Morgan facing the camera lens. A female trainer stood a few feet away from Morgan just watching the crowd leave. The other 2 orcas were still swimming around in the tank and often just spy hopping at Morgan. A trainer stood by the bridge was asked if Morgan is ok, His reply " Yes she’s fine just like’s to be out of the water” The audience was still leaving and we were eventually all asked to leave. At this point I stopped filming and I glanced back:  Morgan was still in the same position as where the trainers. This had now been over 10 minutes. So all I could do now was make my way to the exit. As I left for the exit, heart pounding, feeling choked up and holding back the tears. 
I had just witnessed the true face of captivity. As much as they are controlled and trained. The only place for these majestic creatures is the ocean with their true family...
Anonymous, Morgan Monitor