other people. just know that they are beautiful. ♪ >> an unlikely ballerina finding her footing and in the process forever changing the world of ballet. >> tomorrow is misty copeland's finale performance of the american ballet theater's "nut cracker" next she will make her american debut in "swan lake" with the washington ballet in april. president obama might be starting his christmas vacation but after a cyber terror attack he still has a lot on his plate. what he's focusing on today. plus days after historic policy change with the u.s., cuban president raul castro speaks to parliament. what he says about the trade embargo and cuba's status as a terrorist state. and the holiday rush home is

just a few days away and there's a big storm already causing trouble. we have the forecast coming up. hello again everybody. i'm fredricka whitfield. welcome to the cnn newsroom. president obama and the first family in hawaii. they landed in honolulu overnight to begin their holiday vacation but before he left washington the president held a year end news conference highlighting administration accomplishments. white house correspondent michelle kosinski is traveling with the president. joining us now from honolulu. what is the president doing today. he said he hoped to relax or at least have some calm moments in his fourth quarter. >> right. he seemed really ready for a vacation. look at this place. good morning from waikiki beach.

the secret service prepared for his arrival. the family arrived pretty much in the middle of the night. we expect today to be full of relaxation. you're right. he made -- he gave this address yesterday, his end of the year press conference, a long list of the administration's accomplishments and we've been hearing that. almost every time he makes an announcement he kind of gives the good news first, sort of the state of things, almost sounded like a mini state of the union address. he said when you look at virtually any metric america is better off now than before he took office. listen. >> meanwhile around the world america is leading. we're leading the collings to degrade and ultimately destroy isil, a collings that includes arab partners. we're leading the international community to check russian aggression in ukraine. we are leading the global fight combat ebola in west africa and

we're preventing an outbreak from taking place here at home. we're leading efforts to address climate change. we're writing a new chapter in our leadership here in the americas by turning a new page on our relationship with the cuban people. and in less than two weeks after more than 13 years our combat mission in afghanistan will be over. >> reporter: okay. well that was a lot right there. he got into some other topics too. he did say, those he's ready for a vacation and has a long list of movies he wants to watch but wouldn't say whether "the interview" was one of them. >> business of to ask you on that. >> reporter: i think one of the most remarkable things in that address that he gave was that he wished that sony had talked to him before they pulled that movie from theaters. he called that a mistake. i don't think too many people were expecting him to weigh in

so definitively. and with such an opinion on that. >> yeah. we heard the ceo say he can pull some strings if he wants, if he the president wants to see that movie. he can see it on vacation or any time if he really wanted to. michelle kosinski, thank you so much from honolulu. now to the story that has captured the headlines for weeks that devastating cyber attack on sony pictures. north korea went on the offensive today blasting the u.s. for linking pyongyang to the attack. alexandra field joining us on that. north korea issuing a very worthy statement. >> reporter: in typical north korean style. very similar to some of the writing we've seen from them in the past. it includes a very bizarre request saying that the united states should work together with north korea on a joint investigation into this hacking. it says that if u.s. does not cooperate if they continue to name north korea as having

backed this cyber attack that there will be consequences. it's a lengthy statement. this say this about the u.s. whoever frames our country for a crime should present concrete evidence. they go on to say america's childish investigation result and its attempt to frame us for this crime shows their hostile tendency towards us. then i want goes on, we will not tolerate the people who are willing to insult our supreme leader but even when we retaliate we will not target innocent movie goers. the retaliation will target the ones who are responsible and the originators of the insults. the white house said there will be retaliation but come from the u.s. directed towards north korea. the question is what kind of tactic kobs employed. >> big question there. thank you so much. now to some new developments out of havana. president raul castro applauding the white house decision to begin normalizing relations between two countries.

in a speech to the country's national assembly earlier he caused there's a long road ahead for the two countries. patrick ottman was at this morning's address. we heard there was a lot of praise from raul castro but what more was he willing to reveal to the cuban people? >> reporter: this talk, this speech really seem directed not just to the cuban people but to the elite in the cuban government and military. raul castro of assuring some people he's not selling out the revolution, normalizing relations with the u.s. at least in his opinion, will not affect his hold on power. you know, he said that yes the u.s. will be talking with cuba and that there will be, he expects an embassy, u.s. embassy here in havana, cuban embassy in washington, d.c. but cuba will not alter its domestic or

foreign policy in any way to please the u.s.. he was complimentary of president obama but figured the revougs would continue for another 570 years. much more optimistic than people feel this is the waning days of the revolution. raul castro is 83 years old. a lot of discussion who will succeed him, whether the young people here feel the same revolutionary spirit as they are called the historic generation does. raul castro was very clear even though some concessions have been made that he's as some people would say here sitting down to negotiate with the enemy that at least in his opinion he hasn't sold anything out. he confirmed something interesting. confirmed something interesting. that he will be in panama in april for a hemisphere summit where barack obama will also be attending. so certainly some anticipation

building up for that meeting. we'll see if there's a hand shake, if there's a meeting, if there's more historic agreements struck when the two men see each other in april in panama. >> gosh. so patrick you mentioned raul castro, 83 years old. so what about that next generation of political leaders. have there ever been any hints of someone else who is either being groomed by the castros or whether there's anyone who is waiting in the wings who has been bold enough at this juncture to reveal their political aspirations? >> being bold in cuban politics is usually not a recipe for success. people over the years who suggested they would like the jobs they are doing something else right now. but there's a man name miguel two years ago he was picked by raul castro, elevated to petroleum of first vice president. he was there today by raul castro's side. he was born after the

revolution. not a man we know very well. not someone that certainly u.s. officials have had any access to. foreign media sees very little of. he's got to be closely guarded so no mistakes are made, nothing too revealing. it's his job to lose right now. we don't know how he feels about this deal. raul castro kept this deal a closely guard secret. his daughter told me the other day she even didn't know until it was announced, until there were negotiations raul castro led himself and told very, very few people up until of course this week when the whole world found out and in quite spectacular fashion. >> that's something in common with the white house because they kept it secret for 18 months. that too is pretty extraordinary. patrick ommmann thank you so much. a big winter storm threatening to make holiday travel a mess this week even those folks look

like they are having fun now. california snowboarders making the best of what could be a bad situation for others. what we can expect, all of us over the holidays next. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? an apron is hard work. an apron is pride in what you do. an apron is not quitting until you've made something a little better. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? for us, everything.

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support us at redcross.org . a blast of winter is heading to the east and the midwest right in the middle of the busy christmas holiday travel week and it's going cause some major delays on the roads and in the skies. cnn meteorologist with us now. i wish i could say we can count on you for some good news but i don't think folks will welcome this news. >> not so much. aaa is estimating about 99 million people to be traveling. most of those about 90% of those people will be on the roadways. if you're headed into the pacific northwest you've got the powerful storm system there right now. all the way from vancouver to seattle forward. north of san francisco that rain will pile up.

i looked at some already rainfall reports and incury county in oregon they are seeing about three, three and a half inches of rain. more in store. now through sunday. here's troublemaker area of low pressure moves across the great lakes. the computer models are still trying to figure out exactly what will happen but right now it looks like if you're traveling in to or out of chicago's international airport, minneapolis or detroit, you are looking at snow. this comes on christmas eve. wet weather out ahead of it. politics fr places like new york city is going to be a wet christmas. soggy skies persist there even as we go into christmas eve and therefore christmas day. some of that begins to pull away but that cold air is going to be on the back side of this and be brisk. once the rain tapers off you're do for cooler temperatures. new york city, christmas day, 57 degrees. and we're looking at chicago

with readings go from the 40s into the 30s and you're expecting snowfall, just how much is hard to say at least at this point. but across the west the snowfall, one to three feet across the cascades, the northern sierra nevada. speaking of sierra nevada maybe we have that video. this is west of tahoe. it's beautiful. it's lovely. unless you don't have chains on your tires or unless you're driving a truck then this is a whole different ball game. but it's going slow going through nest. millions of people will be affected as i mentioned aaa says 99 million people and it's a record number that are hitting the highways. >> with those gas prices so low too great incentive to hit the road. already, thank you. could the sony hack have been prevented? i'll ask a man who was once an infamous hacker himself and what we should be doing differently to stop the next attack from

happening. but first -- a young singer-songwriter with tourette syndrome is helping others face their challenges and live their dreams through music. we have the story. >> reporter: jamie grace grew up of growing up becoming a singer-songwriter. ♪ >> reporter: before she could begin to pursue her career in music she got some news that put her dreams on hold. at the age of 12 she was diagnosed with tourette syndrome. >> i wanted to be a singer. i had no idea what tourette syndrome was. all i found was clips of movies of these actors yelling and cursing and i remember seeing it at 11 years old and crying my eyes out and i spent the next year being absolutely miserable. >> reporter: instead of letting her condition silence her, jamie turned to you tube. just two years after her diagnosis jamie began posting

videos of herself singing. ♪ >> reporter: she got the attention of record labels and an online audience. >> i didn't blow up like justin bieber did but i had a really cool response. >> reporter: now she's using her stage and her story to inspire others. >> i love the way you hold me. >> reporter: she started her own foundation. i'm a fighter. it's a place where people dealing with illnesses and challenges can share stories and find support. >> it's daily stories of fighters. a little kid with cancer. a hard-working father. it's been really cool to able to build that community. ♪ i really hope my songs connect with people. i really want to bring encouragement.

the cyber attack against sony has other companies wondering if they could be next. some like target and home depot have already been victims of huge cyber security breaches but as cnn explains the biggest target by far has been the united states government.

>> reporter: fred, we reviewed hundreds of pages of documents on cyber attacks and security breaches against the u.s. government and what we found was astounding. every day the government is under attack. cyber attack. there were 61,000 hacks and security breaches throughout the u.s. government last year. >> there's an adversary out there whose job it is to break into our systems. so, you know, somebody is trying 24/7. it's going to get much worse than it is today. >> reporter: the white house and state department networks were recently tar get. cyber incidents involving u.s. government agencies are skyrocketing. that number hit more than 46,000 last year. >> cyber espionage is increase at unprecedented rates. >> reporter: in 2013 hackers attacked the armies corps of engineers. they obtained information on the nation's 85,000 dams including their locations and potential for fatalities if they were breached. >> people were stealing hard

copies of paper work and passing it off to our adversaries. today they can do it digitally. >> reporter: in july 2013, hackers infiltrated the energy department taking the personal data of more than 100,000 people. they lifted information including birthdays, social security and bank account numbers. >> government and industry are in a difficult battle against cyber adversaries. they are very sophisticated actors out there. for them we have to assume that an attack could occur and so organization need to be prepared. >> reporter: the government spent $10 billion on cyber security last year but that can't defend against an employee who is duped into clicking on a malicious link. >> so, how do companies and governments prepare for cyber battle? let me bring in kevin. he knows both sides of this. he's a convicted hacker who is

now a security consultant and ceo of a security company. so let's begin with this sony hack. given everything we know, could that company have prevented this attack or was it inevitable because so many former employees and currents employees say that company was vulnerable. >> certainly they have sloppy security but if you have nation state that has money, time and resources, i think they can break into anything. in fact, what i tell my clients that are concerned about their systems being hacked is they need to do what we call a penetration test. so what's a penetration test? it's an ethical hacking exercise where hackers with permission try to break into the company physically, technically and by manipulating people, by clicking on links and stuff like this

that might contain malicious attachments and actually see how well their security holds up to these attacks. find the holes and then patch those holes before the real bad guys try to break in. >> how often should a company be doing this to find out whether there are holes? >> well, at least on an annual basis but if there's a company like sony i would recommend doing it at least twice a year. also having a cycle, what we call kind of a security lifecycle so if, for example, sony sets up a new web application that's facing the internet where anybody can connect to that that goes under some sort of security review before it's placed out into the public. because in a lot of cases, companies release websites that are vulnerable and they don't test them before they are released and end up getting hacked. >> the fbi has pointed the finger at north korea.

north korea saying it was framed that's language they used in a statement today. you recently have said that you were not necessarily convinced it was north korea. so why were you skeptical and now given their response today saying we want to have a joint investigation with the u.s. and if not there will be serious consequences, how has any of that changed your view about who really is at fault here? >> well the statements by the government were largely conclusionary. they haven't released any evidence and as a security professional we actually like to see the details. and what the fbi relied on is the malware that they found in the network, the infrastructure and some of the ip addresses that were used. if the truth be noerngs haknown share tools, knowledge, share infrastructure. >> they don't want to be detected. >> right. could somebody else be behind the attack to make it took like north korea? i don't know. i didn't have visibility into the evidence to look at it myself.

but the damage has already been done. sony's extremely confidential information was exposed to the internet. why should the government hold back this evidence? i think they should release it so the security community could look at it and say hey this makes a lot of sense. >> then how in your view has sony's reaction, meaning it says it's not going to release the film on christmas day even though sony also says it was the movie theaters who essentially, you know, caved in by saying we're not going to air this movie, how has all of this, in your view, perhaps even empowered hackers? >> well, it's really sent a bad message and i agree with the ceo that it was really the theaters that stopped the showing of the movie because of the concern for liability that their patrons might be injured on site. but i don't think sony -- i think sony should actually release this immediately on pay per view or free to the world.

that we shouldn't allow whether it's a nation state or a group of hackers to censor this material being shown to americans. it's a bad message that is sent because now copycats might do the same type of attacks not for embarrassment but actually to monetize it some way through an extortion scheme. >> thanks so much for joining us from los angeles. >> all right. thank you for having me on your show. >> happy holidays. >> thank you. >> still ahead, celebrations in havana after president obama and castro agree to re-establish diplomatic tools. but can president obama win the looming battle on capitol hill. our political panel weighing in. our look into future. today we look how american farmers will use technology to grow our food. here's richard quest.

>> reporter: from the time man first tilled the earth, farming has been associated with long days and back breaking work. today achieving that bountiful harvest is not just about working harder. no, it's more about working smarter. now technology is arming farmers with the information and the ability to do just that. >> years ago i worked all fall. now we're doing what i did all fall in about two days. >> reporter: farmers like joe are taking full advantage of the technology available. >> our yields are getting color coded in right here on this page here. >> reporter: today sensor technology is used all over the farm. it provides real-time information, about everything from fuel levels to the soil

fertility. >> we're much more aware of what we have in the fields. this information that we've received from all of our technology has basically put money in our bank accounts. >> reporter: in the future technology will give farmers better data. by giving them a better view from drones like this precision hawk. its ability to map the terrain will provide farmers more valuable information than ever before. so tomorrow's farmers will need to work the data even harder than they work the fields.

president obama is not backing away from his decision to normalize relations with cuba and easing travel restrictions pep said it's time to try something new. >> i don't anticipate overnight changes. but what i know deep in my bones is that if you done the same thing for 50 years and nothing has changed you should try something different if you want a different outcome. and this gives us an opportunity for a different outcome.

>> earlier today raul castro praised the u.s. president when he spoke before the cuban national assembly. >> translator: we welcome the statements made by president obama in order to open a new chapter in relation to the ties between both nations and to start making the more significant changes in the u.s. policy of the past 50 years. >> cuba's national assembly has ratified the diplomatic deal but here in the u.s. only congress can lift the trade embargo outright. amom holmes is here. and anna marie cordona is a democratic strategist. good to see you. amy, you first. the u.s. chamber of commerce,

the united nations all say lift the trade embargo. so should or will congress end i want as well? >> well, there's a real debate to had whether the embargo is helping cuba move 0 towards democrats. some say no. but in this case president obama once again is take an executive action without building consensus. you saw this week that opposition to the president's action was bipartisan. senator menendez from new jersey a democrat he came out against the president and as president from we know from public polling does not have public approval. he's at 52% disapproval. he doesn't have the political capital. but i guess we now know what his new doctrine is do something else. designee said it's time to do something else.

in his view 50 years hasn't worked and six years in his presidency he said he's not getting anywhere from building a consensus. didn't he warn, you know, particularly post-mid-term elections he was going to get things done and work around congress, amy? >> to me or to maria? >> to you, amy. >> yes. well yes, after this mid-term thumping where house democrats are at their lowest minority in 80 years, where you have had a seen president obama basically hollow out the democratic party he respond with hey i'm president and i'm going to use executive action. even bill clinton's former domestic policy adviser said he's never seen anything like it. >> so maria to you the president fired the warning shots and now delivering on that. so should anyone be surprised, or is there a problem with this? >> well, clearly the republicans have a problem with it because i think what they are seeing from

this president is and his neumann tradition is get something done even if congress obstructs you at every turn. he definitely warned the republicans and told the american people that he was going to do whatever he could within the realm of his power and he does have this power to do it. he did it at the state of the union at the beginning of this year, fred. >> one should be surprised by this. in terms of building consensus for the cuba policy, consensus has already been there by the american people. the american people overwhelmingly have believed that the embargo towards cuba has been an epic failure and it has. it has not helped the cuban people which is what we all thought was the goal of this at the end of the day. and frankly it has probably kept the castro brothers in power. there was an interesting poll also yesterday from "the miami herald" and the cuban-american community is split with overwhelming support from this

from the younger cuban-americans who are frankly the future of that community and they say they want the trade embargo lifted, they want to be able to go visit their home country and to be able to actually bring american values personally to the cuban people. >> so, amy, how will this impact the next presidential race, florida senator marco rubio saying that, you know, he's going to fight confirming an ambassador to cuba. then you listen to the polls maria was talking b-a recent poll saying seven in ten cubans favor in re-establishing diplomatic relation with cuba and more than half want to end the embargo. is this what the president means in this fourth quarter interesting stuff happens. >> i would warn the president to stop using sports metaphors in reference to the jv team turned out to be faulty. in terms of the embargo policy

we're already seeing it split the republican party. you have senator rand paul who liens more libertarian who doesn't approve of this isolationist policy. marco rubio who wants to see the embargo stay in place. i think it is going to mix up the 2016 elections in some interesting ways. also on the democratic side of the aisle. if hillary clinton throws her hat in the ring which a lot of people are expecting she will, will she go to the right to seem more hawkish on foreign policy to distinguish herself from president obama's record? >> interestingly enough you bring up hillary clinton, and she has made it very clear that she was part of or helped get the ball rolling as it pertained to lifting the embargo or at least easing the relations, warming the relations between the u.s. and cuba. so you have to wonder, maria if she's going use that to her advantage if indeed she returns it feels like she's going run.

if indeed she choose to run will this assist her? >> i think it absolutely will, if she runs. she will absolutely use this and talking about how she was part of the run up to this. let's remember her husband really wanted to do this in his term but because of circumstances was not able to do it. and, again, not just on the cuba policy, but another thing the president has focused on in terms of his executive action climate change, immigration. he has the consensus of the american people on his side. so i think the republicans are a little bit in a tizzy because they don't know how to go at it when you have these very popular policies that the president is focused on and now that they have the majorities in both houses of congress they've prove to the american people they have to govern so we'll see. >> all right. >> hold on for a moment. abc and "the washington post" found this week the american public prefers or rather trusts

republicans more on tissues of economy and immigration over president obama. i think hillary clinton is going to be distancing herself rather on some of these issues. >> she will not be distancing herself on immigration or cuba policy or climate change. >> that we know for sure. >> the middle class is the focus for her if she runs and is the focus for the president. >> the word interesting is perfectly applied. it will be next interesting year and a half or two. amy marksry, a thanks so much. >> thank you, fred. happy holidays. >> happy holidays. coming up next something fun bubble wrap. everyone loves bubble wrap. cnn's money shows us where it comes from. >> reporter: inside these headquarters in saddle brook, new jersey they make it by the truckload every hour. but there's something new

happening. in their lab they are creating boxes that self-inflate, bubbles that inflate on sight and packaging that takes the shape of a product once it's cracked much like a hand warmer. >> this is not made out of plastic, it's made out of mushrooms. >> reporter: mushrooms that i can eat. >> you can eat. >> reporter: doesn't smell like mushrooms. does it taste like mushrooms? >> no. >> reporter: bubble wrap started it all. like other brilliant inventions it was made by accident. the story begins in 1957 when these guys were trying to make wall paper. it didn't quite stick but from that failure bubble wrap was born. what is the secret to making bubble wrap? >> i'm not going say that. come on down. this would be one of the reis ins we're using on the product.

>> reporter: this is essentially plastic. >> this is plastic. >> reporter: it gets crushed up into these huge tubes. >> we'll suck it newspaper to any of the one of three lines. >> reporter: to form the bubbles the plastic is melted down at 500 degrees into a consistency like molasses. >> then we extract another layer of material to seal the air inside the bubble, a static charge like on a balloon. >> reporter: it's cut down to size by a million dollar machine. there are over 100 different kinds of bubble wrap customized for almost every major shipping company in the world. >> every e commerce company is using these products. >> reporter: bubble wrap is 3% of the company's revenue. their newer innovative packaging isn't so easy to pop. >> this is kind of the thing of the past and this is the thing of the present and future. >> that's right.

>> reporter: no bubble wrap.

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tonight at 7:00 eastern cnn will show an encore presentation of "black fish" the some a seaworld trainer killed by a 12,000 pound orca in 2010. the film gained international attention for the way it challenged the concept of keeping killer whales for entertainment. ivan watson spoke to a man who spent two decades capturing whales and now rescues them. >> reporter: it is the unmistakable sound of fear

coming from one of the world's largest predators. a young killer whale effectively screaming just hours after being captured from the wild. so traumatized and disoriented the animal can't even swim after its journey from the the ocean this small pool. this rare never seen before individual offkiller whales captured near iceland in the 1980s being shared for the first time with cnn by jeff foster man who masterminded the capture of many killer whales. how many years were you actually capturing killer whales? >> for me from 1972 to 1990. >> reporter: that's a long career. >> yeah. >> reporter: how many of the killer whales do you think you captured? >> couple dozen. probably 12. >> reporter: a couple dozen with all of them going marine parks like seaworld. are killer whales big business? >> absolutely.

killer whales are the most expensive animals outside of racehorses. they are worth millions of dollars. there's huge demand to see these animals. >> reporter: foster started his career as a teenager here in seattle which was the birth place of the captive killer whale industry. in 1976 a ban on capturing orcas in washington state along with the growing public outcry in the u.s. against the practice forced foster and his colleagues to move their operations to iceland. there they snatched young whales from the frigid waters of the atlantic ocean and do mess ti indicated and trained them to marine parks in u.s., france and japan. over time foster says he got more and more uncomfortable with ripping wild killer whales from their families in the sea.

>> there's a cry like a baby crying and so yeah. you know, it tugged at your heart. >> reporter: over the last 20 years foster has gone from being a hunter to a rescuer of marine mammals. >> hi thomas. >> reporter: we first met fost to worry years ago in turkey when he led a back to the wild project that rehabilitated two abused dolphins and released them into the aegean sea. he's worked on sill lar rescue projects with the killer while that was found disoriented in the pugent sound and the star of "free willie" who survived for a while in the wild after spending decades in captivity. two years ago foster got a tempting offer to return to opportunity. he was offered $7 million to

capture killer whales off of the pacific coast of russia. ivan watson, cnn, seattle. >> so does jeff foster take that $7 million offer to return to the hunt? we'll have the answer after this.

tonight cnn will show "black fish" the controversial story of a seaworld trainer killed by a killer while. we go back to the story of a man who hunted killer whales and now rescues them. >> reporter: jeff foster is a man who knows what it's like to experience the thrill of the hunt and the high dollar payoff that capturing killer whales for theme parks can bring. but after decades as a leader in the captive industry foster changed his focus. turning his attention to marine conservation instead. and then a tempting offer to capture whales again. this time off the far east coast

of russia proved almost too lucrative to him to refurks an offer that would have allowed foster to retire as a multimillionaire with a $7 million paycheck. >> offered $7 million for me to do the whole thing, collect the animals, select them, do the initial training and transfer them to the facilities. >> how about killer whales? >> total of it a. >> where would this have taken place. >> russia. the buyers were chinese buyers. two of the animals would be going the olympics and to a town i never heard of, to sochi. >> reporter: sochi was the host stiff this year's winter olympics in russia. also home to a small dolphin park called the sochi dolphin area. this dolphin area in sochi has denied reports it was seeking to aacquire kill irwhales. calling those reports a hoax aimed at slandering russia's winter olympics. we certainly didn't see any

killer whales at this very small facility. but according to russian official documents there were very different plans involving killer whales for the dolphin area as recently as 2012. the russian fisheries agency issued a permit to the sochi dolphin area in 2012 for the capture of two orcas in the sea of orsk. a dozen whales were capture there. the question why after months of negotiations did jeff foster turn down an offer that would have allowed him to retire in comfort. >> it got to that point and literally looking in the mirror and i said i can't do this. i can't -- i'm not going -- i can't get involved with any more captures of killer whales. >> reporter: foster takes us out on a boat into washington

state's peugeot sound where he first learned how to capture killer whales. he says scientists have learned over the past 40 years that unlike many other wild animals these social highly intelligent orcas live longer in the wild than they do in concrete pools like seaworld and marineland. >> one of the reasons i changed my animals on these animals being in captivity the pools haven't changed. we developed new pools for dolphins and new pools for other species but the killer whale tanks haven't changed in 30 years. >> reporter: foster points the case of a young killer whale named morgan who he says is sank park in the canary islands. >> she's this wonderful little animal that's confused, lost and alone. and she is in almost a situation where she's getting up all the time. >> reporter: morgan was brought to this seaworld affiliated park

after she was found disoriented and sick off the coast of the netherlands. on two visits to the park foster says he saw morgan abused by larger killer whales and said she was so despondent she was banging her head against the side of the pool. he says she constantly called out for her missing family. >> loud, loud calls. loud screaming calls. it's continuing over and over. and i just, you know, at that point it really hit me, hit home that this poor animal is in a really terrible situation with a very dysfunctional group of animals. she needs moved out into a better place. >> reporter: foster joined a campaign to free morgan. in april after a lengthy multiyear appeal process a court in the netherlands disagreed ruling the whale should stay in the park. in an impassioned statement the park's owner defended the

court's decision by saying quote, i honestly think that this decision can be seen as a pardon for morgan because her release would have meant suffering and death. so morgan remains in a pool in captivity despite the best efforts of foster and other free morgan activists. the former orca hunt certificate learning it's far easier to capture a killer whale than it is to set one free. ivan watson, cnn, seattle. >> watch the film "black fish" tonight at 7:00 eastern right here on cnn. i'm fredricka whitfield. thanks for being with me. the next hour of cnn begins after a short break with martin savidge. during the subaru "share the love" event, subaru owners feel it, too. because when you take home a new subaru, we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. we'll have given 50 million dollars over seven years.

love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.