Orca captured as calf then kept in Miami aquarium for 50 YEARS could be returned to Pacific

An orca that has been living in a Miami aquarium for 50 years could be returned to the Pacific Ocean after Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay took pity on it.

Lolita the orca, also known as Tokitae, was captured off the coast of Washington in 1970. She’s lived most of her life inside the Miami Seaquarium, but now that could change.

The Seaquarium, the nonprofit organization Friends of Lolita and Irsay announced at a press conference Tuesday that they hope Lolita will return to her native waters.

“I think she will be very happy to be back and it will be therapeutic for her, contrary to the common misconception that it will be stressful,” said Orca Network’s Howard Garrett. News.

The orca will not only be dumped in the Pacific to fend for itself, but will initially be placed in a larger enclosure off Orcas Island that will have clean, deep water where you will be able to hear other orcas in the area.

Lolita the orca, also known as Tokitae, was captured off the coast of Washington in 1970 (pictured). She has lived most of her life inside the Miami Seaquarium.

I guess when you hear them. She’ll answer right away, so she’ll call back,” said Garrett, who has been fighting for Lolita to return to Puget Sound since the 1980s. “This is going to be so exciting when she comes back.

Previous proposals have required NOAA to approve Lolita’s cross-country relocation, however it is unclear if the agency has done so. It is also unclear how the animal would be transported back to the Pacific.

The Lummi Nation of Washington, a Native American tribe, traveled to Miami in 2018 to leave behind a nearly 4,000-pound totem pole as part of an effort to bring the orca back to Washington. It’s part of an $8.5 million effort to bring Lolita home, according to CBC.

The Seaquarium, the nonprofit Friends of Lolita and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay announced at a news conference Tuesday that they expect Lolita to return to her home waters.

Isray did not detail how they plan to move the orca if the plans are approved.

Tribe member Jewell James accused the Seaquarium of neglecting the animal’s money needs, forcing her to perform for the public a few times a day and said keeping her in the 20-foot tank was like keeping her in a prison cell. . .

“She is our relative and we want her back,” he said.

However, a British Columbian mammal expert isn’t so sure it’s in Lolita’s best interest to remove her from the aquarium.

“I think this could be something very cruel and inhumane,” Andrew Trites, director of the University of British Columbia’s Marine Mammal Research Unit, told CBC. ‘Lolita is not a young whale.

‘She’s an older person and I’m really worried about…ethics. She has had constant company with people, with white-sided dolphins, and she is not adapted to come here.

Lolita performed for decades before stopping last year due to illness. She is the longest-lived whale in captivity at the age of 56.

Lolita will not only be thrown back into the Pacific, if she is released, but will initially be placed in a large container filled with deep, fresh water to help her rehabilitate.

However, critics are certain that moving the old whale will be a death sentence (Lolita, right, and Hugo, left, in 1979)

However, the Seaquarium said it has no plans to release the whale, which has worked for more than 20 years, due to its age and the possibility it could be exposed to deadly pathogens and diseases.

Lolita is the oldest whale in captivity at 56 years. On average, those in captivity only live to be around 45 years old. Wild killer whales can live up to 80 years.

He stopped acting last year after falling ill.

“They really should be ashamed of themselves, they don’t care about Lolita, they don’t care about what’s best for her, they really don’t care if she lives or dies,” Robert Rose, who works at Seaquarium, told the Lummi Nation.

In the early 200s, a whale named Keiko was returned to the ocean, but died a year later after failing to re-assimilate with other whales, even after rehabilitating itself in the wild.

Capturing orcas was legal in the 1970s, but after a series of protests against hunters attempting to capture orcas from their mothers, Washington banned the practice.