Less than a week after Jim Irsay's donation to bring orca Lolita out of captivity in Miami and back to her native waters in the Pacific Northwest, many are questioning how exactly she will be transported.
SEATTLE — An ambitious 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.
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. The whale — Namu — became a sensation. Lolita, now 57, spent decades performing. Last year the Miami Seaquarium announced it would no longer feature her under an agreement with regulators. The 5,000-pound animal lives in a tank 80 feet by 35 feet and 20 feet deep.
“The first objective is to provide her the highest quality of life we can,” said Charles Vinick, a founder of the nonprofit Friends of Toki as well as executive director of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “Whether or not it becomes the dream of having her reunite with L-pod is something we have to rely on Lolita to show us.”
“Until she’s returned to her family, our family is broken,” Morris said. “When she comes home, the web of life will be repaired and restored, and our people will be repaired and restored.”When all the pieces are in place — which could take two years — Lolita will be placed on a stretcher. She'll be lifted by crane into a tank placed on a truck, and the truck driven to a cargo plane.
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