Tokitae performing at the Miami Seaquarium as “Lolita” Photo Courtesy Miami Seaquarium
New developments on Wednesday could speed up the return of an Orca stolen from the Puget Sound more than 50 years ago.
Close to 300 Orcas were captured in the Salish Sea during the 1960’s & 70’s; and for the past 53 years this one had a stage name: “Lolita” a performing whale at the Miami Seaquarium.
“For the Indigenous tribes in the Pacific Northwest she is called Sk’ali Ch’elh-tenaut,” but more commonly known in these parts as Tokitae says Charles Vinick at the Whale Sanctuary Project.
After decades of trying to gain the release of the oldest Orca in captivity, a group called “Friends of Toki” finally succeeded last week. “(We’ve been cleared) to begin discussions with all the federal agencies and the state agencies” Vinick told reporters during a conference call “to facilitate a move to a netted enclosure in the pacific northwest.”
But the move has to be carefully orchestrated; Tokitae is in poor health and a 3,300 mile trip to Seattle is going to be stressful “Although she still has a chronic infection” Vinick is planning the move and working with a team of veterinarians “She is stable enough that they think such a move would be better for her health than where she is.”
Jim Irsay, the billionaire owners of professional footballs Indianapolis Colts, says he’ll pay whatever it takes to return the 57 year old Orca returned to her native waters “Jim Irsay stepped forward earlier this month and said he will provide all of the money for her life to move her and care for her” Vinick says with a tone of gratitude and disbelief.
A move could happen “as soon as possible” as Vinick put it, maybe in the next year.
But talk of returning Tokitae to the open waters he says is wildly premature “That has to wait until she shows us what she’s capable of; she and the southern residents (southern resident orcas) are an endangered species, so nothing can be done that would jeopardize that group of whales.”
Not now, not after 50 years of trying to rescue and return her to the Pacific Northwest.
