Lolita

Keiko and Tilikum may be some of the most famous orcas but there are others. This orca was before Keiko and Tilikum and she a tragic story. Her name is Tokitae, but her stage name is Lolita. The reason her name changed was because the owners did not want people to know where she came from.

During her capture, the wranglers used bombs and speed boats in order to round up the orcas. The captures were off the shores of Washington. Besides Lolita, there were 5 other orcas captured and sent to different parts of the world, but Lolita was the only one to survive. The captures were deadly. What I mean is that many of the orcas died and the wranglers slit open the dead orcas and placed rocks in them that way the orcas would sink to the bottom hopping that the public does not see. Eventually, those dead orcas washed up on the shores and a legal case started. Now, no one can capture orcas off the shores of Washington. That is very hard to imagine losing your family and being taken away.

The plan for Lolita was to be a friend to another orca at Maimi Seaquarium named Hugo, but only the owners knew that they both came from the same pod. Hugo and Lolita communicated at a distance because the owners were worried that they may hurt one another, but really I think they just wanted to be together so they wouldn't be alone. Hugo would bang up against the wall to a point were he has hurt himself. Once he grew into his adolescence years that when he become determined to be with Lolita but killed himself in the process. The report on his death was the cause of a brain aneurysm. This left Lolita alone again.

Lolita continues to perform at Maimi Seaquarium. She is the oldest orca living in captivity.She was captured "on August 8, 1970 in Penn Cove, Whidbey Island. She was one of seven young whales sold to marine parks around the world from this roundup of over 80 orcas conducted by Ted Griffin and Don Goldsberry, partners in a capture operation known as Namu, Inc." Future orcas started to become aware of what was going on and started to come up with ways to avoid capture. Lolita's pod was too late to realize this. Today Lolita still lives in her small tank and the Seaquarium says that they do not have the money to make a bigger tank.

""Lolita is believed to be about 22 feet in length, weighs about 8,000 pounds, and is in good physical and mental health in spite of the fact that she has been held without other orcas since Hugo died in 1980. She is maintained in natural seawater drawn from Biscayne Bay and chilled to about 60° F, which is optimum for her in the Florida environment."

Despite Lolita's tragic experience, she is still calm, but she desires that companionship of others. There are others that are trying to free Lolita but no deal has been made yet. Lolita's tank is not appropriate. people can reach out and touch Lolita if they wanted to. That is not safe.