Northland orca expert Ingrid Visser has lost a two-year court battle to free a young orca held captive in a Spanish theme park.
The female orca, known as Morgan, was alone and emaciated when rescued off the Dutch coast in 2010. A marine park near Amsterdam nursed it back to health but then, instead of returning it to the wild, made plans to transfer it to Loro Parque in Spain's Canary Islands.
That sparked a legal battle by the Orca Coalition, with help from Dr Visser and the Free Morgan Foundation, who came up with a detailed release plan and argued that transferring Morgan to Spain was illegal. The group won a landmark legal victory in August 2011 - but celebrations were shortlived, because a few months later the Amsterdam District Court allowed the transfer to go ahead.
That decision was revisited in a day-long hearing in Amsterdam on November 1, Dr Visser's last chance to persuade the Dutch courts to order Morgan's rehabilitation and eventual release.
The judges released their decision yesterday, finding no laws were broken when Morgan was transferred to Spain. Dr Visser is still in Holland and could not be contacted yesterday.