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Credit: Miami HeraldAfter 57 years, a Florida Park will release its killer whale back into the wild – but her trainers aren’t too happy.
Keeping orcas in captivity is controversial, to say the least. While the likes of SeaWorld have long used the creatures – better known as killer whales – as the centerfold of their entertainment, animal activists have dubbed their confinement cruel since they usually live in large groups (AKA pods) and swim up to 40 miles per day.
In 2013, Blackfish (2013) showed audiences just how much captivity can impact a killer whale. The documentary focuses on Tilikum, a killer whale who spent most of his life at SeaWorld Orlando. During his 35 years, Tilikum was involved in three of the four fatal attacks recorded by killer whales, which the filmmakers suggest stemmed from psychological damage.
Petitions to free Tilikum into the wild racked up thousands of views – but making that a reality wasn’t that simple. Tilikum was captured at the age of two and spent eight years at Vancouver’s Sealand of the Pacific before transferring to Orlando. After a lifetime of captivity, he not only lacked the natural instincts to take care of himself but was unprepared for the viruses and weather conditions he may have encountered beyond SeaWorld’s strictly-controlled walls.
It’s for these reasons that, despite the deafening backlash, sea parks worldwide remain reluctant to transfer their whales from the tanks to the ocean. The case of Keiko – the male orca famous for portraying the title character in Free Willy (1993) – is a major deterrent. Too timid to integrate into a pod, he instead followed at a distance and sought company from humans before passing away from pneumonia just over a year after his release.
That was in 2003. Now, 20 years later, a Florida sea park is making another attempt at freeing a killer whale into the wild. In the next 18 to 24 months, Miami Seaquarium hopes to successfully release Lolita – also known as Tokitae – back into the ocean.
The plan is to transfer 57-year-old Lolita from her balmy home in Miami to the her home waters of Puget Sound, where she’ll first live in a sea pen around 200 yards long. She’ll then move on to a 15-acre enclosure, where she’ll be able to communicate – but not swim with – the orca pod she was captured from in 1970. There’s still no confirmation whether she’ll then be allowed to reunite with her pod.
Miami Seaquarium’s announcement lit up the internet. But for those who know the cautionary tale of Keiko – and who also know Lolita – the park’s decision is deeply controversial.
A group of 35 marine mammal experts – including “Toki’s current and former trainers, veterinarians and caretakers” – have banded together to create the website Truth4Toki and petition against Lolita’s freedom.
We are Toki’s current and former trainers, veterinarians and caretakers, with over 350 collective years of experience. The Miami Seaquarium recently announced a plan to bring her to a seaside sanctuary. We believe that this plan will be detrimental to Toki’s welfare. As this site develops, we will add updates, media coverage, and more ways of getting involved.
Their concern is that Lolita is too old, ill, and sensitive to change to be airlifted cross-country to the Pacific Northwest. They also worry that the waters of Puget Sound may contain diseases Lolita isn’t prepared to fight and that she, in return, could expose wild orcas to new bacteria.
If Miami Seaquarium isn’t prepared to provide Lolita with the facilities she needs to thrive, Truth4Toki proposes that she is instead relocated to a bigger and deeper facility nearby – for example, SeaWorld Orlando, which would take just five hours.
@truth4toki Toki (Lolita) will die if she’s moved across the country and to the ocean. Join us to do what’s best for HER and not anybodys wallet! #truth4toki #animals #foryoupage #foryou
The tale of Keiko already sets an unwanted precedent. For those who know Lolita best to petition so strongly against the “freedom” activists believe she needs is just another warning sign about the next chapter in the killer whale’s tale.
“I encourage people to look at the Keiko story,” Shanna Simpson – one of Lolita’s former trainers – told Sun Sentinel. “That was an epic fail. We’ve already done this. Why are we going to do this again to another animal and kill them, just like they did Keiko?”
As of April 7, their petition to keep Lolita in Florida has hit 7,352 signatures.