Oldest Captive Orca Could Be Freed After Over 50 Years

Plans are being made to return Lolita the orca, who has been in captivity for more than five decades, to her home waters.

Lolita, also known as Tokitae, has lived at Miami Seaquarium since 1970, after she was captured from the waters of Puget Sound at 4 years old.

Animal welfare groups have been campaigning for her freedom for years and it looks like their wish could finally be granted. Miami Seaquarium has announced that it will hold a press conference on March 30 to discuss plans for her release.

For her first 10 years at the Florida marine park, Lolita lived alongside an orca called Hugo. He died of a brain aneurysm in 1980 and, since then, she has been without other killer whales for company.

Orca are highly social animals, so Lolita's solitude has prompted concerns for her wellbeing.

Her living conditions have also been criticized by animal welfare experts, with many arguing that they are inadequate for an orca of her size.

One of the organizations campaigning for her release is PETA.

"If Lolita is finally returned to her home waters, there will be cheers from around the world, including from PETA, which has pursued several lawsuits on Lolita's behalf and battered the Seaquarium with protests demanding her freedom for years," the group said in a statement sent to Newsweek.

"If the Seaquarium agrees to move her, it'll offer her long-awaited relief after five miserable decades in a cramped tank and send a clear signal to other parks that the days of confining highly intelligent, far-ranging marine mammals to dismal prisons are done and dusted."

Miami Seaquarium has been working with Friends of Lolita, a non-profit made up of scientists and other experts, to prepare for her release. There are several concerns that need to be addressed.

Lolita is the final surviving orca out of 45 that were captured for display in aquariums between 1965 and 1973. At 56, she is quite old for a captive killer whale, which have a shorter life expectancy than those in the wild.

There are questions over whether she would survive a journey from her tank to the ocean. There are also fears about whether she could deal with the stress of the new environment once she got there.

Lolita is a southern resident orca, which is an endangered species. In July 2022, it was estimated that there are only 75 of these orca living in the wild.

Over her years at Miami Seaquarium, Lolita has fought off a number of infections and some experts fear that these bugs could harm the wider population if she were to return to the wild.

Newsweek has contacted Miami Seaquarium by email for comment.

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