MIAMI.- The Amigos de Lolita association, which watches over the well-being of the orca of that name which has been in captivity in Miami for more than 50 years, will announce this Thursday a “historic initiative” which has to do with the return from the popular cetacean to the waters where it was born.
The announcement will be made at a press conference attended by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, representatives from The Dolphin Company, concession company Miami Seaquarium, Amigos de Lolita and philanthropist Jim Irsay.
The call says there is no doubt that this is “to join forces for the return of beloved orca Lolita to the Pacific”.
LOLITA’S HEALTH PROBLEMS
Lolita has improved from the health issues that plagued her in 2022, according to the latest examination carried out in February by two independent veterinarians.
After suffering a serious infection last year, the orca is showing signs of “significant improvement and better health”, according to the report.
According to data provided by animal rights activists, Lolita, which was sold in 1970 to the Miami Seaquarium for approximately $20,000, is confined in a pool approximately 60 feet (18 meters) in length and a depth of maximum of 20 feet (6.1 meters).
“Lolita should be taken to the area of the sea where she was captured, her mother is there,” Charlene Aleck, a representative of the Tsleil-Waututh Indigenous Nation, for whom killer whales hold religious significance, said last December.
PETA REACTS
In a statement posted on its website, animal welfare organization PETA said that if the release were granted, even they would applaud the measure.
“If Lolita is finally returned to her native waters, there will be applause from around the world, including PETA, which has pursued multiple lawsuits on Lolita’s behalf and staged numerous protests demanding her release over the years. If the Seaquarium agrees to move her, He will offer her long-awaited relief after five miserable decades in a cramped tank and send a clear signal to other parks that the days of confined highly intelligent, long-range marine mammals in dark prisons is over.
Since September 24, 1970, Lolita has been in the Miami Seaquarium, which was opened in 1955 on an island in Biscayne Bay and served as the setting for the famous television series “Flipper”.