Lolita the orca returning to home waters 50 years after capture

March 30, 2023

Free Lolita!

Fifty years after being captured in the Pacific Ocean and taken to the Miami Seaquarium, Lolita the orca is set to be released.

For years, animal rights activists have argued that Lolita should be returned to her home pod in Puget Sound — and now she’ll finally make that journey to the Pacific Northwest.

“So many have hoped and prayed for this result for many, many years,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Cava said in a “historic” announcement at the venue on Thursday, according to the Miami Herald.

In attendance were representatives for Florida nonprofit Friends of Lolita, as well as Indianapolis Colts owner and philanthropist Jim Irsay, who has stepped up to help pay for the multimillion-dollar move, estimated to cost between $15 million and $20 million and to take about 18 to 24 months.

“I’m excited about being part of Lolita’s journey,” Irsay said. ”I know that Lolita wants to go home. She has the fire within her.”

Trainer Marcia Hinton pets Lolita — A trainer works with Lolita in this undated photo.

The nearly 5,000-pound orca is now believed to be around 57 years old, making her the second-oldest orca to be held in captivity — the species’ life span is normally around 46 years.

Lolita, also known as Tokitae, was taken along the Washington State coast in 1970 when she was about 4 years old.

Soon after her capture, the killer whale was bought by the Miami Seaquarium and moved to South Florida, where she was put on display until last year.

Lolita fell ill in recent years and was officially retired from the whale stadium last March.

Marian Prio, center, wears an Orca costume as she and others protest against Lolita the orca's decades-long captivity at the Miami Seaquarium — Animal rights activists have pushed for Lolita’s release for decades.

The Miami Seaquarium was purchased by the Dolphin Company in 2021 after years of scandal and accusations of animal neglect.

Dolphin Company CEO Eduardo Albor shared that his daughter cried the first time they watched Lolita’s show at the park, because of how heartbreaking it was to watch the creature perform in her small tank.

He said that he promised his daughter that day that he would free Lolita if he ever took over the park.

The Friends of Lolita plans to meet next month with the US government, which must approve the move.

Heart-breaking footage has emerged of aquatic animals at Miami Seaquarium living in tiny pools — Critics insist that Lolita’s tank is too small for the nearly 5,000-pound creature.

Orcas are the largest species in the dolphin family and some of the most powerful predators at the top of the food chain.

Southern resident orcas, a population that includes Lolita, normally spend several months of the summer and fall each year in Washington State’s Puget Sound and were added to the endangered species list in 2005, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Photos expose the poor living conditions of animals at the Miami Seaquarium — Some experts worry that Lolita’s time in captivity has made her unprepared to survive in the wild.

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has even taken the Seaquarium to court over the orca’s captivity on several occasions, claiming that Lolita’s Miami tank is the world’s smallest orca enclosure.

“By agreeing to move her, the marine park offers her the possibility of long-awaited relief after five miserable decades in a cramped tank and is sending a clear signal to other parks that the days of confining highly intelligent, far-ranging marine mammals to dismal prisons are over. ” PETA said in a statement responding to the news of Lolita’s upcoming release.

However, some argue that it’s safer to keep endangered animals in captivity to help preserve the species, the Miami Herald reported.

Experts worry that Lolita isn’t healthy enough to survive diseases and polluted waters.

She will also need to be taught how to catch fish again.