The film aims at raising awareness about the serious consequences that underwater noise can produce on marine wildlife.
Loro Parque-Animal Embassy has celebrated this Thursday the premiere of a short film about the story of the orca Morgan on its social media channels, after it was selected by various international festivals and presented at more than 90 festivals around the world.
The animated film, directed by Marcos Martín Muñoz and produced by Capcub, not only narrates Morgan’s journey until she found her home at the renowned zoological park of Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife but also seeks to raise awareness on the serious adverse consequences that underwater noise can produce on animals.
The story of Morgan, the world’s only deaf orca, is an opportunity to raise awareness of the problems caused by human-generated noise, not only for cetaceans, but also for other marine organisms and the welfare of the entire ecosystem.
Javier Almunia, scientific director of Loro Parque Fundación, assures that “underwater noise pollution is an emerging problem that concerns scientists but unfortunately is still mostly ignored in marine conservation policies worldwide”. In this sense, the short film will serve to boost a school awareness project and also to promote a signature campaign asking the European Commission to implement measures to control and mitigate underwater noise in the marine Special Areas of Conservation that form part of the Natura 2000 Network. As the film is aimed at children and their families, the script and production are very entertaining and fun, and it is expected to be very well received by the audience.
Morgan: a story of perseverance with a happy ending
It was on 24 June 2010, just over 10 years ago, when this orca was found off the coast of the Netherlands. She was still just a calf and was found alone, dehydrated and malnourished, in a near-death condition. Thanks to her being rescued and to the many people who worked to help her survive, she was able to make a full recovery in just a few months at the Harderwijk Dolphinarium in the Netherlands.
However, her family could not be found, so she could not be returned to the sea and there were only two alternatives: euthanasia or an integration into a group of orcas under human care. The Dutch authorities, after studying her case, decided that the best place for her was Loro Parque and the latter accepted the request for help.
Soon after, her caregivers noticed that Morgan did not respond to sounds and a group of independent, international experts brought in to investigate the situation eventually concluded that she was deaf, which would prevent her from hunting, finding her way around and simply communicating in the open sea. Nevertheless, in order to interact with her, the trainers at OrcaOcean in Loro Parque developed a communication system based on lights that is unique in the world.
Thanks to this, Morgan was able to integrate more easily and has managed to establish such positive social bonds within the group that, in September 2018, she gave birth to her first calf, Ula, who is the youngest and is growing healthy and strong. Today, both live in perfect harmony with the other animals at Loro Parque-Animal Embassy.
