Lolita the Orca To Be Released into "Home Waters" After Five Decades of Captivity

THINK

Apr 1

After being confined to a small tank for over fifty years, Lolita, the last surviving orca from her kidnapped pod, is set to finally be released back into her home waters in the Pacific Northwest with the help of a non-profit organization and philanthropist funding.

After being taken from the wild and confined to a marine park more than fifty years ago, the orca Lolita, also known as Tokitae, could finally be released back to her home waters in the Pacific Northwest where her mother is believed to still reside.

The aquarium announced on Thursday that it will begin the process of sending the orca back to her natural habitat within the next two years. Florida-based non-profit organization Friends of Toki is spearheading the release efforts, with philanthropist and the owner of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts football team Jim Irsay funding the unprecedented move that could cost up to $20 million.

“I’m excited to be a part of Lolita’s journey to freedom,” said Irsay. “I know Lolita wants to get to free waters.”

In 1970, Lolita and her family pod of Southern Resident killer whales, were violently ambushed and separated from their mother in Puget Sound, Washington, during which five died, and seven were captured, and sold to marine parks.

Lolita has been imprisoned at Miami Seaquarium ever since, and is the last surviving member of the kidnapped orcas.

She has spent the past fifty years confined to a shallow, 80-by-35-foot concrete tank, where she is forced to perform, sometimes two to three times a day, until March of this year, when she was officially retired by the seaquarium as part of an agreement with federal regulators.

For years, campaigners, activists, Indigenous groups, and philanthropists have fought to return Lolita to her natural home.

Since the death of her tankmate Hugo in 1980, the 55-year-old marine mammal has been without the companionship of any other orcas. Instead, she has been forced to share her tank with dolphins who are wholly incompatible with her. These dolphins have repeatedly attacked her, with at least 52 documented attacks in one year alone. The lack of appropriate socialization and living conditions has taken a toll on her well-being and highlights the urgent need for her release back to her natural habitat, state campaigners.

*Lolita performing at Miami Seaquarium. Wikicommons photo: Piotr Domaradzki, Miami, FL, 1998*

It is believed that Lolita’s mother, called Ocean Sun, is still swimming free with other members of her pod. She is estimated to be around 90 years old, which gives campaigners hope that her daughter Lolita could enjoy decades of freedom when released.

“It’s a step toward restoring our natural environment, fixing what we’ve messed up with exploitation and development,” said Howard Garrett, president of the board of the advocacy group Orca Network, based on Washington state’s Whidbey Island. “I think she’ll be excited and relieved to be home — it’s her old neighborhood.”

According to Eduardo Albor, CEO of The Dolphin Company, the well-being of Lolita was a primary motivation behind his company's acquisition of the Miami Seaquarium. His daughter, who became upset when she watched Lolita forced to perform in a show, made him promise to help the orca if his company purchased the marine park.

“Finding a better future for Lolita is one the reasons that motivated us to acquire the Miami Seaquarium,” said Albor. "With the help of Jim Irsay and Pritam Singh, we are bringing that dream, the dream of returning Lolita to her home waters, closer than ever."

The current plan is to fly Lolita to an open sanctuary in the waters between Washington and Canada. Here she will be re-taught how to hunt fish by trainers and veterinarians, while also building her muscles after years of living in a tiny tank to enable her to swim the daily 160 kilometers typical of an orca.

“She was 4 when she was taken, so she was learning to hunt. She knows her family song,” said Raynell Morris, an elder of the Lummi Indian Tribe in Washington who also serves on the board of Friends of Toki. “She’ll remember, but it will take time.”

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