Orca held for 52 years to be released in the US

Trainer Marcia Hinton caresses Lolita during a performance at the Miami Seaquarium in Miami, March 9, 1995. – Photo: Nuri Vallbona/Miami Herald via AP

The Florida Aquarium has reached an agreement with animal welfare advocates to release Lolita, who weighs 2,268 kg, and has been held for more than half a century, officials said Thursday.

The Miami Aquarium said it had reached a “binding agreement” with nonprofit organization Friends of Lolita to return the dolphin to its ocean habitat in the Pacific Northwest within two years.

Lolita, 57, who was captured in 1970 in a cove near Seattle is also known as Toki, which is short for a Native American name for the animal, tokitai, the Miami Herald reported. The plan to return Lolita to its natural habitat requires federal approval, according to the paper.

The process of returning Lolita to the water took years, and began with the transfer of ownership of the aquarium to the Dolphin Co., Miami-Dade County Sheriff Daniela Levine Cava said at a news conference. Later, the company partnered with a non-profit organization to provide medical assistance to the animal.

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc.’s previous owner, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc, terminated the Orca Shows in 2016. Once the Seaquarium’s main attraction, Lolita retired from the shows in March 2022 after a change of management.

“Creating a better future for Lolita is one of the reasons we decided to acquire Miami Aquarium,” Dolphin CEO Eduardo Albor said in a statement.

The pressure to free Lolita gained momentum after the 2013 documentary “Blackfish” showed the capture of orcas.

Animal rights advocates fought for years unsuccessfully in court for Lolita’s freedom after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration added orcas to its endangered species list in 2015.

Killer whales are social mammals that have no natural predators and can live up to 80 years.