SEATTLE—For years animal activists have campaigned to free a killer whale that was captured off the Northwest coast in 1970 and has been performing at Miami Seaquarium in Florida for over four decades. They say the orca, known as Lolita, belongs to a small population of endangered killer whales and should receive the same federal protection as those wild animals.
A decision from the federal government is expected next week at the earliest. But far from ending the debate, it’s likely to prompt a new round of battles over the fate of the whale, who was four or six years old when she was legally rounded up from Puget Sound off Washington state waters and later sent to the Miami facility.
Robert Rose, curator of the Miami Seaquarium, said he anticipates the National Marine Fisheries Service will include Lolita in that endangered group. “Regardless of what happens with the listing, she’s not going to be released,” Rose said in an interview on Wednesday.
Lolita is a healthy, vibrant animal, has been well cared for by the Seaquarium for 45 years and would endure more harm if she’s released into the wild, Rose said. Thousands of visitors who would never see a killer whale in the wild are introduced to killer whales through Lolita, according to the Seaquarium.
Activists say, however, that she belongs in the wild, not a small pool, and should be returned to her home waters. She has become a rallying cry for activists, who have led a decades-long campaign to get her freed.
The whale would have more freedom and the chance to bond with others in the tightly knit pod of orcas that spend time in Washington state waters, activists said. Her probable mother is still alive, they say.
“She is suffering in that cramped confinement,” said Howard Garrett, executive director of the nonprofit Orca Network, based on Whidbey Island. “We would like to see her enjoy her life.
“We would like to see her be able to swim free in the waters where she grew up.”
The group wants Lolita released into a protected marine pen near the San Juan Islands north of Seattle, where she will be monitored and cared for until she can gradually reconnected with other wild orcas.
Rose noted the case of the captive killer whale Keiko, who was released into the wild and whose story was dramatized in the 1993 film Free Willy.
“He didn’t have Hollywood movie ending,” Rose said. He died in Norway, presumably of pneumonia.
Garrett said Keiko lived for five years in the wild before his death. There’s minimal risk of harm to Lolita or other orcas if she’s returned to her home waters, he said.
Phuong Le / The Associated Press
Image credits: AP/Miami Herald, Nuri Vallbona