A killer whale named Lolita is set to being freed from a Florida aquarium and returned to her home waters in the Pacific Northwest.
The announcement came Thursday after the operator of the Miami Seaquarium formally agreed to “bring to life the dream of returning Lolita to an ocean sanctuary.”
At 56, Lolita is one of the oldest orcas in captivity. Animal activists have been fighting for her freedom for decades, arguing that she deserved to return to her home in the Pacific Northwest.
“The angels showed up and made this happen,” said Pritam Singh, who leads Friends of Toki (Lolita), the animal rights group at the forefront of the effort to free the orca.
But many questions and hurdles remain.
Can Lolita survive?
Lolita has had multiple health scares over the years, including an infection that caused her to stop eating back in October.
Lolita has survived so much already, Singh said at a news conference announcing his group’s agreement with The Dolphin Group, which operates Miami Seaquarium.
Back in 1970, Lolita and a number of other whales were part of a violent capture from a pod in the Puget Sound near Seattle. Four baby whales and an adult were killed during the capture.
In 1980 at the aquarium, Lolita lost her mate Hugo to a brain aneurysm he suffered after repeatedly ramming his head into his tank.
“She’s persevered through the difficulties that we human beings have enforced on her,” Singh said. “She lived through her captivity and the death of her family, she lived through her other family dying, and she lived through being in this small tank for so many years. When you see her, her life force, it just brings you to tears.”
He said it’s entirely possible for Lolita to survive her move, citing the case of Keiko, the whale who inspired and starred in the 1993 film “Free Willy.”
Keiko became the first killer whale returned to the wild in 2002, more than 20 years after he was captured in waters off Iceland. He went on to survive for five years before dying of pneumonia at the age of 27.
A big move
There are also the financial and logistical issues associated with moving a 5,000-pound whale across the country and teaching her how to hunt again.
Jim Irsay, who owns the Indianapolis Colts, has agreed to pay for Lolita’s transfer and estimated that it could cost upwards of $20 million.
“I knew getting into this, it was going to be a big number,” Irsay said at the news conference, adding that he’s loved whales since he was a kid and is excited about helping Lolita.
“I know Lolita wants to get to free waters,” he said. “She’s lived this long to have this opportunity … I know she wants to go home and I know she has the fire within her and the determination to pull it off. She is special.”
He said the first part of the process will be getting Lolita and her two dolphin roommates on a special plane and getting them into a habitat in the Pacific. Then Lolita will need to get acclimated and trained to hunt. If all goes well and she’s healthy, the plan will be to release her into the wild.
Irsay said his hope is that Lolita is able to join a pod that includes an 89-year-old whale believed to be her mother.
“No matter what happens here it’s going to be a great tale,” he said.
A dad’s promise
Eduardo Albor, the CEO of the Dolphin Company, said that he vowed to help Lolita before buying the park in 2021. He took his daughter for a visit and saw the whale perform, which delighted both him and the crowd.
His daughter couldn’t take it, though.
She told her father: “I cannot be here because this place is too small for Lolita. Dad, I have to go or I will cry.”
Afterward, he said he promised the girl he would work to free the whale.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the agreement between an animal rights group and a private company was “historic” and a great day for Miami.
“So many have hoped and prayed for this result for many, many years,” she said.
