Plans call for bringing Lolita to a netted whale sanctuary of about 15 acres (6 hectares). Outrage over the captures helped prompt the U.S. The roundups reduced the Puget Sound resident population by about 40% and helped cause problems with inbreeding that imperil them today. Among those kept was 4-year-old Tokitae, later sold to the Miami Seaquarium.īy the early 1970s, at least 13 Northwest orcas had been killed and 45 delivered to theme parks around the world Toki is the only one still alive. Many orcas remained nearby, declining to leave as their clan members were hauled out of the water. Several got caught and drowned when opponents cut the nets, intending to free them. Griffin corralled dozens of orcas off Washington's Whidbey Island in 1970. Namu soon died from an infection, but Griffin had set off a craze for capturing the Pacific Northwest's killer whales and training them to perform, as The Seattle Times recounted in a 2018 history. That began to change in 1965, when a man named Ted Griffin bought a killer whale that had been caught in a fisherman's net in British Columbia and towed it to the Seattle waterfront. While they hope to bring Lolita - also known as Tokitae, or Toki - to a whale sanctuary among the Pacific Northwest's many islands, they know she might never again swim freely with her endangered family, including the nearly century-old whale believed to be her mother.
Some of Lolita's former caregivers are warning she could face a similar fate - or that she might not survive a move across the country.īut advocates say there are big differences between the cases and that their experience with Keiko will inform how they plan for Lolita's return. He is the only orca released after long-term captivity. Keiko's return to his native Iceland improved upon his life in a Mexico City tank, but he failed to adapt to the wild and died five years later. SEATTLE - A plan announced last week to return Lolita, a killer whale held captive for more than a half-century, to her home waters in Washington’s Puget Sound thrilled those who have long advocated for her to be freed from her tank at the Miami Seaquarium.īut it also called to mind the release of Keiko - the star of the movie “Free Willy” - more than two decades ago.
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