Conservationists were pleased to know that an unlikely small coalition made up of a trainer, marine park owner, a animal rights group, and a NFL owner announced plans to return Lolita or Tokitae as she is known to a whale sanctuary in Puget Sound. Tokitae has been held captive for more than fifty years. She was only four years old when she was captured to be put on display at Miami's Seaquarium. Amazingly her mother, now more than ninety years old, is believed to still be alive in Puget Sound. Toki, 57 years old and weighing 5,000 lbs, lives in a tank measuring 80x35ft by 20ft deep for huge, intelligent, social mammal it must be the
human equivalent of solitary confinement. Toki's brother Hugo died of a brain aneurysm after repeatedly smashing his head against a tank wall.
Last year Miami Seaquarium, which gained fame as the location for filming the "Flipper" TV show, announced it would no longer conduct public displays with Toki pursuant to an agreement with federal regulators last year.
Returning long captive orcas has proven problematic. When Keiko the orca was returned to the wild in Iceland two decades ago, his living conditions markedly improved over living in a tank in Mexico City, but he failed to adapt completely to his wild surroundings and died five years later. Advocates hope that the situation with Toki will be different since members of her L Pod are still living. An advocate elder of the Lummi tribe said Toki knows her clan song and was learning to hunt when she was taken, but that it will take time for her to adjust. She will be under 24 hour care within a netted area until she acclimates to her new surroundings, regains muscle strength, and re-learns how to catch fish.
Only seventy-three individuals remain in the southern Puguet Sound population comprising three pods according to the Whale Research Center on San Juan Island. The threatened population has not significantly increased since the early seventies.
Orca roundups in the seventies were deadly affairs. Thirteen orcas died and forty-five shipped to amusement parks and aquariums around the world, reducing the resident population by 40%. The reduction in members has caused
in-breeding with adverse genetic effects. Eduardo Albor, the park owner, said his young daughter made him promise to help Toki after seeing her perform in a show. If all goes well in 18 to 24 months and $20 million, Tokitae ("bright colors") will rejoin her pod and her mother, Ocean Sun, to swim free in their home waters once again.
