Lolita, who retired in March 2022, will return to a Pacific Northwest marine habitat within two years.
Website/Portal/Andrew Innerarity
Lolita, a 57yearold orca who weighs 5,000 pounds and has been in captivity for 52 years, is being released US, authorities said on Thursday, 30. The performance came after a Florida aquarium reached an agreement with animal welfare advocates to release it. The Miami Seaquarium said it has reached a “binding agreement” with the nonprofit Friends of Lolita to return the whale, which recently retired from performing, to a marine habitat in the Pacific Northwest within two years. Lolita, or Toki—the animal’s name and an abbreviation of Tokitae, the Native American name for the whale—was caught in a bay near Seattle in 1970. She was a key attraction at the Seaquarium, owned by SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (SEAS.N), which phased out operations in 2016. However, the whale did not retire until March 2022. The process of bringing the orca back to the ocean took years to complete pressure mounted after the 2013 documentary Blackfish spotlighted orca captivity. In order to achieve the conquest of the fifth fira, it was necessary, with the transfer of ownership of the aquarium to The Dolphin Co. It then entered into a partnership with the nonprofit organization to provide medical assistance to the whale. Animal rights activists fought unsuccessfully for years in court to win Lolita’s freedom after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration placed orcas on the endangered species list in 2015. Killer whales are highly social mammals that lack natural predators and can live up to 80 years.
*With information from Portal