Write a letter to the agencies responsible for her safety and well-being.

Thank you for asking and caring about Lolita/Tokitae/Sk’ali-Cheh-tenaut. We all wish we could return her to her home waters immediately, but there remain many obstacles to her return. You can help to remove some of those barriers by learning and speaking out in any way you can.

Probably the best thing anyone can do to help our missing L pod orca, is to understand that she is by all accounts healthy, energetic and responsive, with robust teeth, and that she presents no issues that would indicate any inability to be transported back to her native waters and regain her full strength and vitality. In a professionally planned transport and rehabilitation program there is no significant risk to her or to her family in any phase of the program. Transport of orcas is routine in the industry and has never resulted in serious harm. Medical protocols can prevent disease transmission and those precautions will be taken. Immersion in a marine mammal’s native habitat is considered by veterinary literature to be therapeutic for virtually all captivity-related stresses, injuries, or illnesses.

The biggest impediments to Lolita's return to her home waters are not fundamentally legal or economic, it's that too many people underestimate her capabilities and overestimate the risks of her retirement. These common misperceptions need to be answered if Lolita is to retire in her native habitat.

The best thing people can do is to then use whatever means are available to each of us, whether in classes, through social media, traditional media, or over the water cooler at work or at home, to tell others that she is capable of safely returning to her home.

We also ask that people understand that the record shows that even after long-term captivity whales and dolphins captured from the wild can resume the skills needed to catch their own fish, after a period of gradual re-acquaintance with their natural world.

We believe she will eventually rejoin her family, but that would have to depend on her strength and how she and her family, the Southern Resident Orcas, behave when they find one another. Her retirement plan includes a contingency for perpetual human care, either in a permanent seapen or at care stations where she can find food and/or companionship at any time.

Funds can be contributed to Orca Network. Any funds raised are used for educational purposes, unless and until there is agreement with the management to return Lolita to her native waters for rehabilitation in a protected seapen.

To write directly to the owners of the Seaquarium: 

Pascal Ferracci
Chief Executive Officer of Parques Reunidos Servicios:
PARQUES REUNIDOS SERVICIOS CENTRALES S.A
Paseo de la Castellana, 216. 16th floor
28046 Madrid. Spain
+34 91 526 97 35
or email: management@grpr.com

We also need to send letters both to APHIS, the U.S. government agency that oversees the Animal Welfare Act, and to the USDA, which oversees APHIS. Two letters could be sent to help retire Lolita based on the Miami Seaquarium's violations of the Animal Welfare Act: one each to APHIS officials and to USDA officials.

To send the USDA letters

1. Copy and paste the following USDA letter into your word processor.

2. At the end of the letter, fill in your name, mailing address, phone number, and email address.

3. Copy and paste the completed letter into your email program.

4. Send the letter to agsec@usda.gov.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 200-A
Washington, DC 20250
agsec@usda.gov

Dear Mr. Vilsack:

I'm writing to urge you to ensure that APHIS enforces the Animal Welfare Act as it pertains to Lolita, the orca whale currently at the Miami Seaquarium.

Orcas are intelligent and highly social marine mammals that typically swim 75-100 miles a day and repeatedly dive to several hundred feet. But Lolita is alone, is constantly exposed to intense low-latitude sunlight with no shelter, and cannot swim any distance in a pool that is not as deep as she is long.

Lolita has spent over 40 years at the Miami Seaquarium in an inhumanely undersized tank with no shade to protect her from direct sunlight and no protection from the weather, including hurricanes. Her exposure to sun and weather violates Section 3.103(3)(b) of the Animal Welfare Act.

In addition, Lolita's tank, which is the smallest orca tank in North America, is only 35 feet long from the edge of the pool to the trainer's platform; this is 13 feet shorter than is required by the Animal Welfare Act (Section 3.104). Even if, as specified in subsection (1)(i), the minimum horizontal dimension is reduced by 20% so that the required dimension is only 38.4 feet, the actual dimensions of the tank still fall 3.4 feet short of the minimum. Lolita is 22 feet long and weighs over 7,000 pounds. Her tank is incredibly confining for a marine mammal of her size.

Lolita's captivity also violates several other provisions of the Animal Welfare Act:

• Lolita's pool does not meet the perimeter fence requirements to keep animals and unauthorized people out, nor does it protect her from abuse and harassment by the public. [Sections 3.103(3)(c) and 3.101(2)]

• Lolita has not been in the company of another orca since 1980. This highly social marine mammal is subjected to this solitude in the unfounded belief that her dolphin tank mates are an acceptable replacement for a member of her own species. Only a related family member would be appropriate as Lolita's companion. [Section 3.109]

• Nonfood objects are used in Lolita's pool for entertainment, which may subject her to injury through ingestion. [Section 3.101(2)(g)]

• South Florida is subject to intense hurricanes, yet there is no emergency contingency plan on record, as required. [Section 3.101(4)(b)]

Lolita is unique among all the captive orcas in North America in her potential to be returned to see and hear her orca family in her native waters. Lolita was captured in Puget Sound from the Southern Resident community of orcas, which is the most comprehensively researched cetacean population worldwide. She is a member of the L pod, and her mother may still be alive. This orca community has lifelong matrilineal bonds: the orcas never leave their mothers, forming large family groups with complex social systems. Lolita continues to make the unique calls of her L25 subpod, named for its 82-year-old matriarch. Her family pod still lives in Puget Sound. Because Lolita was old enough at capture to have learned how to catch fish and still speaks her pod's dialect, there is a possibility that she can be successfully reintegrated with her family in Puget Sound. At over fifty years old she is still a healthy adult; in the wild her potential lifespan will likely be much longer than it would be in captivity.

Lolita can be transported to an ocean sea pen in a protected San Juan Island cove that offers both abundant salmon and immediate access to her family pod. She will be fed and taken care of by humans while being reacclimated to life in the wild with supervised open-water swimming and potential interaction with her extended family. If she decides to rejoin them, that will be her choice; if not, she will be lovingly cared for while living the rest of her life in a natural environment with plenty of room to forage and play.

The owners of the Miami Seaquarium have been asked for decades to release Lolita to whale scientists who can reacclimate her to Puget Sound and reunite her with her orca family.

Please tell APHIS to shut down the Miami Seaquarium orca show and insist that its owners retire Lolita and release her to those who are ready to bring her home to the Salish Sea.

For more information about how the Miami Seaquarium's captivity of Lolita violates the Animal Welfare Act, please see Lolita the Orca; Facts, Legal Issues and How To Get Her Home found at: https://theorcaproject.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/lolita-the-orca-her-life-her-legal-issues-and-her-way-home/

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Regards,

[NAME]
[ADDRESS]
[PHONE]
[EMAIL]

To send the APHIS letters, please follow these steps:

1. Copy the following APHIS letter into your word processor.

2. At the end of the letter, fill in your name, mailing address, phone number, and email address.

3. Copy the completed letter into your email program.

4. Send the letter to animalcare@usda.gov.

The letter below should be sent to the APHIS Eastern regional director:

Willie D. Harris
Eastern Regional Director
USDA—APHIS Animal Care
920 Main Campus Drive, Suite 200
Raleigh, NC 27606
(919)855-7100 [Office]
(919)855-7123 [Fax]

Dear Willie D. Harris:

I'm writing to urge you to inspect the Miami Seaquarium for at least six likely violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

As you are surely aware, Lolita has been residing since her 1970 capture in the Miami Seaquarium in what cetacean experts consider inadequate conditions. Orcas are highly intelligent and social marine mammals that typically swim 75-100 miles a day and repeatedly dive to several hundred feet. But Lolita is alone, is constantly exposed to intense low-latitude sunlight with no shelter, and cannot swim any distance in a pool that is not as deep as she is long.

Lolita has spent over 40 years at the Miami Seaquarium in an inhumanely undersized tank with no shade to protect her from direct sunlight and no protection from the weather, including hurricanes. Her exposure to sun and weather violates Section 3.103(3)(b) of the Animal Welfare Act.

In addition, Lolita's tank, which is the smallest orca tank in North America, is only 35 feet long from the edge of the pool to the trainer's platform; this is 13 feet shorter than is required by the Animal Welfare Act (Section 3.104). Even if, as specified in subsection (1)(i), the minimum horizontal dimension is reduced by 20% so that the required dimension is only 38.4 feet, the actual dimensions of the tank still fall 3.4 feet short of the minimum. Lolita is 22 feet long and weighs over 7,000 pounds. Her tank is incredibly confining for a marine mammal of her size.

Lolita's captivity also violates several other provisions of the Animal Welfare Act:

• Lolita's pool does not meet the perimeter fence requirements to keep animals and unauthorized people out, nor does it protect her from abuse and harassment by the public. [Sections 3.103(3)(c) and 3.101(2)]

• Lolita has not been in the company of another orca since 1980. This highly social marine mammal is subjected to this solitude in the unfounded belief that her dolphin tank mates are an acceptable replacement for a member of her own species. Only a related family member would be appropriate as Lolita's companion. [Section 3.109]

• Nonfood objects are used in Lolita's pool for entertainment, which may subject her to injury through ingestion. [Section 3.101(2)(g)]

• South Florida is subject to intense hurricanes, yet there is no emergency contingency plan on record, as required. [Section 3.101(4)(b)]

Lolita is unique among all the captive orcas in North America in her potential to be returned to her orca family in her native waters. Lolita was captured in Puget Sound from the Southern Resident community of orcas, which is the most intensively and comprehensively researched cetacean population worldwide. She is a member of the L pod, and her mother is still alive. This orca community has intense, lifelong matrilineal bonds: the orcas never leave their mothers, forming large family groups with complex social systems. Lolita continues to make the unique calls of her L25 subpod, named for its 82-year-old matriarch. Her family pod still lives in Puget Sound. Because Lolita was old enough at capture to have learned how to catch fish and still speaks her pod's dialect, there is every reason to believe that she can be successfully reintegrated with her family in Puget Sound. And although at age 43 she is the oldest surviving captive orca in the world, she is still a young, healthy adult; in the wild her potential lifespan will be much longer than it will be in captivity.

For these reasons, the Orca Network, with the assistance of the Center for Whale Research, has proposed a plan to retire Lolita from the Miami Seaquarium, reintroduce her to Puget Sound, and reintegrate her with her family. Lolita will be transported to an ocean sea pen in a protected San Juan Island cove that offers both abundant salmon and immediate access to her family pod. The bolts to hold her sea pen nets are already installed in this cove. She will be fed and taken care of by humans while being reacclimated to life in the wild with supervised open-water swimming and interaction with her pod and extended family. If she decides to rejoin her pod, that will be the ideal outcome; if not, she will be lovingly cared for by humans while living the rest of her life in a natural environment with plenty of room to forage and play.

The owners of the Miami Seaquarium have been begged for decades to release Lolita to whale scientists who can reacclimate her to Puget Sound and reunite her with her orca family. The Seaquarium owners have adamantly refused to consider this. Instead they have kept her alone in her sunbaked tiny pool, where most of her time is spent floating listlessly with no social interaction.

Please inspect the Miami Seaquarium, shut down its orca show, and insist that its owners retire Lolita and release her to those who are ready to bring her home to Puget Sound.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Please feel free to contact me at any time to discuss Lolita.

Regards,

[NAME]
[ADDRESS]
[PHONE]
[EMAIL]