Lolita | Looking back ...

Photo: Jeff Greenburg | Guest Blog: James Ives | Principia High School | Senior Project 

How It All Began

     It all began in 1970 when Don Goldsberry of Seaworld and Ted Griffin of Seattle aquarium led a mission to capture as many Southern Resident killer Whales (SRKW) as they possibly could within Washington state waterways. Of the estimated 58 SRKW that were taken from Puget Sound, only one is alive as of today. Her name is Lolita. 

In 1992, Ken Balcomb, the founder of the Center for Whale Research (CWR), offered to buy Lolita from Miami Seaquarium. He had planned to free her to a sea pen located in the San Juan Islands, Washington, however the Miami Seaquarium did not accept his offer. In 1996 the Tokitae Foundation (TF) was created by Kelley Balcomb-Bartok, Howard Garrett, Kenneth Balcomb, and Fred Felleman. The TF early mission was to advocate for Tokitae’s release from the Miami Seaquarium. By the year 2000, TF changed their mission to start advocating for Tokitae’s family so that she actually had a family to come home to. Henceforth the TF was renamed Orca Conservancy (OC) on July 24, 2000. 

Lolita’s Captivity Over The Past 50 years

     The representatives of Miami Seaquarium are strong in their efforts at telling the public that Lolita is in good health, is happy, and is being well taken care of by their trainers, veterinarians, and their animal care team. However, all of Lolita’s medical records are property of the Miami Seaquarium. Therefore there is no evidence or way for us to verify the message that Miami Seaquarium puts out about Lolita. From what we know about Lolita we can assess that her current living conditions are not meeting her needs and she is enduring a sorrowful amount of mental abuse and some physical abuse as well. 

Let's review some facts:

1. Lolita the SRKW is 7,000 pounds and is 22 feet long. 
2. The current tank she lives in is considered by experts to be the smallest and shallowest tank of any killer whale in captivity in America. 
3. Her tank is 80 feet long, 35 feet wide, and only 20 feet deep. This makes it completely impossible for Lolita to dive down in the water because her body is the same length as the tank itself. 
4. This tank violates the law stating that the tanks must be at least 48 feet wide in either direction and has to have a straight line to travel across the middle of the tank. This law is provided by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, (APHIS) which is under the jurisdiction of The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This USDA has been lax with this law and has failed to enforce it upon Miami Seaquarium for many years. 
5. In Lolita’s early days of captivity, her trainer reported that her skin would dry up from the sun, crack, and bleed. 
6. Lolita would often cry out at night and we can only suspect she is trying to call out to her family for help. She was often seen still and depressed in her tank floating above the surface. 
7. During a portion of her early years in captivity, she was captive with another whale named Hugo. Hugo died after repeatedly ramming his head into the side of the aquarium until it killed him. Lolita endured emotional damage. After Hugo's death, Lolita was completely cut off from other whales and lived completely alone.
8. Killer whales are not that different from humans.They grieve each other's deaths the same way we do. 
9. Killer whales are very social animals that depend very strongly on family bonds. In the wild, they are born into a pod and never leave their family till the day they die. The only social interaction Lolita has had with other marine mammals are a few dolphins who are said to rake, bully, and harass Lolita. Lolita hasn't seen another killer whale in 40 years. 

The Plan For Lolita's Release

     Many organizations are calling for Lolita’s retirement from performing at the Miami Seaquarium and her relocation back to the wild such as Orca NetWork, The Center for Whale Research, Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project, Empty The Tanks, The Salish Sea Marine Sanctuary, The Whale Sanctuary Project, and Orca Conservancy.

Orca Conservancy had been working on building a plan for years called the Translocation and Reintroduction plan to free Lolita. To summarize the plan Orca Conservancy had come up with the potential solution of building a sea pen in her native waters in the Salish sea. The Pen will have dimensions of 50m by 50m, the pen would be guarded and protected by the coast guard, it would be 50 miles away from the nearest significant population center, the pen would be located close to wild SRKW populations, and no recreational boat traffic in close range of the pen whatsoever. Before Lolita is transported to the pen a team of government and non-government veterinarians, pathologists, and marine mammal scientists will assess Lolita’s health such as gathering several diagnostic samples from lolita, and various clinical observations to see if she is ready to make such a journey across the country.  Lolita will be transported on a large airplane known as a C-130 Hercules or C-17 Globemaster III from Miami Florida to the Washington coast. Once Lolita has made it to the sea pen the real work at reintroducing her to the wild begins. This will include giving her time to explore the pen and become comfortable with her new surroundings sounds and visuals, allow time for a medical assessment of her health which is closely monitored by experts around the pen weekly, refamiliarizing her to the sounds and echolocation of her pod, and allow scientific experts to observe Lolitas behavior towards other killer whales in acoustic range of the sea pen. Lolita will then be reintroduced to hunting live salmon. This process will start with her being fed from hand to eventually releasing live salmon close to her and conditioning her to hunt the live salmon till eventually, that is all she eats. The pen will be expanded gradually outwards and when Lolita has shown she can hunt and gather food on her own she will be taking short visits out of the pen on ocean walks led by a trained boat team known as a DFO Canada. The boat will lead lolita using a certain sound that Lolita is familiar with and can trust. Each ocean walk will become longer and expand more out into the coastal waters of Washington till eventually, Lolita can acclimate to the full environment. At this point, her human interaction will become less and less and her fellow interactions with SRKW will be increased. The DFO will not be leading her anymore and instead, small non-human devices will lead her out into the ocean so that she is being reintroduced to the wild on her own with no human interaction. The end goal of this plan is to involve all stakeholders, all cetacean experts, and all governing jurisdictions native and non-native to return Lolita from captivity at the Miami Seaquarium back to the SRKW community and to be a contributing member of L pod.  

The Current Risks of Lolita’s Freedom 

      Taking a whale that's been cut off from the wild and its family for 50+ years and expecting her to adapt gradually to living healthy in wildlife is seen as a great feat by many. There are also deep concerns regarding the risk of her being able to handle the stress of travel. She would have to be transported across the country from Florida to Washington. It may be possible for Lolita to be able to handle this type of stress but it is a great risk. We must make no mistake in saying that there is a great risk to Lolita's health and safety if we are to get her back to her native waters where she belongs. There are many factors to acknowledge here. The plan will not work unless Lolita meets the health and behavioral requirements for her traveling across the country. Some notable requirements of her health would be, she must not have any health complications that would put her health at risk on her transportation to the pen site and she does not have any infectious diseases that could spread to other members of the wild SRKW population. Some notable requirements for her traveling would be, Lolita would be transported in an open-top container that provides body support and healthy thermal regulation, she will be transported on a large aircraft known as a C-130 Hercules or C-17 Globemaster III, contingency plans for alternate faster routes to Washington's coast along with backup equipment must be developed before she approved for transportation, and lastly, Lolita must be transported in a manner that is safe, humane, and travel time must be shortened as much as possible.

Where We Currently Stand 

     Orca Conservancy has viewed this challenge at every possible angle and is not ignoring any of the risks or potential challenges. Orca Conservancy and I admire the efforts and work towards this plan and hope that one day it is possible for Lolita to get back home to L pod, however, the risk that is currently presented is too great of a risk on Lolita’s safety and health. Hopefully, as fellow environmentalists, we can learn together from what we know about Lolita and other whales like her going into the future. We have learned the dangers and unhealthy conditions of captivity. Hopefully, with enough voices out there captivity will come to an end in a very short amount of years. Together we have learned how Orcas thrive in the wild and how we can support them in that mission. Let's not stop now. There is still Hope for Lolita and other whales currently in captivity and they need our voice. We must be open-minded, not ignore the risks, and look for all creative possible solutions in ensuring the safety and population growth of our SRKW.