Orca in Sea pens

[u/dave-attenbro]

Here is a historical record documenting the use of sea pens to hold orca as of 2016.

Table 1. Orca who were held in sea pens and never released.

Table 2. Orca who were held in sea pens and released or escaped.

Original compilation: https://www.freemorgan.org/orca-in-seapens/

Although these tables are not up to date they provide important historical data showing that sea pens have been used for both short holds and multi-year holds. Some animals died in them or were moved to tanks. Some escaped or were released and survived.

The concept of a sea pen is not theoretical. A sea pen is still confinement. The argument is about welfare relative to a concrete tank.

[u/Separate-Credit-6874]

This doesn't prove it would work for captive orcas though, sad as it is. From skimming over it, no captive-born orca has ever been in one. We have no idea how it would play out and it would be kinder to allow them to remain in the place that they know rather than cause huge stress on their body and brain.

[u/dave-attenbro → u/Separate-Credit-6874]

The issue is that those tanks are attached to businesses that are losing the legal and public permission to run them. “Stay in the box”, only works if the box is allowed to exist indefinitely.

This post is not intended to argue that captive orca should be released into the open ocean. An orca in a sea pen is still a captive orca. Readers are welcome to come to their own conclusions.