Lolita Update #96
Protest at Seaquarium October 11
September 25, 2008

Dear Friends of Lolita~

Orca Network and Shelby Proie are holding a Demonstration and Protest for Lolita at the Miami Seaquarium Saturday, October 11, 2008, from 12 noon to 1:30 pm to tell the Seaquarium owners and the world that Lolita must be allowed to return home.

Join the protest Along Rickenbacker Causeway

in front of the Seaquarium

Virginia Key, Florida

Bring your enthusiasm.

Shelby writes:

Ok EVERYONE Lolita needs YOUR help now more than ever. We are getting publicity for her again, so people are starting to realize how horrible her situation is.

This is how YOU can help her.

Make signs and shirts, get all of your friends and family to come too. This HAS to be HUGE to make an impact. We're going to get all of the media outlets in Miami involved, and start a revolution for Lolita's Freedom.

Please Email Shelby Proie for directions, flyers and further information.

REMEMBER - Do it for Lolita, before it's too late.

Thanks!
-Shelby

The time has definitely come for Lolita to be home again. Shelby is an Environmental Science and Psychology major at Nova Southeastern University.

We are hiring a plane to fly a banner over the Seaquarium during the demonstration. It's a bit expensive. To help contribute to the cost, please go the Orca Network contribution page.

The most important point for all to understand is that there is no risk, short-term or long-term, at any phase of our proposal to retire Lolita in her native habitat and be allowed to communicate with her family. Decades of simplistic messaging by the Seaquarium and the entire marine park industry have pounded out the unsupported belief that somehow, somewhere Lolita might not survive a professional, phased retirement in the waters she was born and raised in.

Kenneth Balcomb, scientific director of the Center for Whale Research, conducting the most intensive and longest-term study of orcas worldwide after 32 years of continuous research on the Southern Resident orcas (Lolita's extended family) says:

"Lolita came from Puget Sound, so it is ridiculous for anyone to postulate that she cannot survive in these waters. Eighty-seven of her closest relatives still live in these waters. Whales and dolphins have been shipped around the world as a matter of routine...Lolita has earned a fortune for her captors and owners, and has reached a time in her life when she is at greater risk of her facility crumbling around her, than she would be in a seapen in the San Juan Islands. Her kind has been trained to do open water exercise and missions, and she no doubt can do likewise here in her homewaters. Lolita can have the same or better quality of food and care that she now receives. I think it is unconscionable that an animal that in nature swims 75 miles per day within a range of hundreds to thousands of miles should be subjected to a lifetime of floating in a bathtub-size pool. It is directly analogous to locking a child in a closet for its lifetime."

Orca Network is seeking major donors to sponsor negotiations with the Seaquarium and preparations to transport and care for Lolita. Please email Orca Network

DRAFT PROPOSAL FOR RETIRING THE ORCA KNOWN AS LOLITA TO HER NATIVE HABITAT IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST (Note: The proposal to retire Lolita has been updated in recent years and can now be found HERE.

Letter to supporters of Lolita's retirement

Responses or inquiries are welcome. Please contact Orca Network.


Popular killer whale 'Ku' dies at Nagoya Port Aquarium
On September 20, 2008 "Ku", a killer whale kept at the Nagoya Port Aquarium and a popular tourist attraction, died on Friday, the aquarium announced.

The 6.1-meter-long (20'), 2.7-ton female killer whale, the last survivor of the Taiji five, was found dead at the bottom of a pool on Friday morning. She stopped eating around July 23. With her dead, the number of killer whales captive in Japan has decreased to just seven, kept at Kamogawa Seaworld in Chiba Prefecture and Wakayama's Whale Museum.

Of the five orcas captured at Taiji, Japan in February, 1997, two died in June, 1997, one died September 18, 2004, a female died October 5, 2007, and now the last of the five has died.

There are now 42 orcas remaining in captivity worldwide. Current number of known orcas that died in captivity: 150.

Ten years ago there were over 50 orcas in captivity. The number of orcas in captivity is steadily decreasing, as they die, always at a young age, faster than they are being born.

Much is going on to help bring Lolita home and to inform and advocate for her and her family Please consider a tax-deductible contribution to help Orca Network continue this work. Thank you!