How do you move a 22-foot whale cross country? Big questions about freeing Lolita
After decades of public pressure, the owners of Miami’s Seaquarium have finally committed to releasing Lolita, the world-famous performing orca, from captivity.
But the historic agreement to return a massive creature held in a small tank in Miami to its home waters across the country in the Pacific Northwest also raised questions that have been swirling for years about the ethics and logistics of such a move.
How do you move a whale cross country?
The first step is building a special travel aquarium tank that fits on the back of a flatbed truck, said Pritam Singh, co-founder of the nonprofit Friends of Lolita. It’s got to be big enough to hold the 22-foot-long, 5,000-pound whale comfortably and safely.
From there, the tank would get loaded into the belly of a giant airplane, something like a Boeing 747 or a Lockheed C-130 Hercules, like the U.S. Air Force uses, and flying her to an airport in Washington state. Then, the orca would be transferred back to another flatbed truck and shipped to the coast.
The tank would get moved again, this time onto a barge. Once the boat arrived at a yet-to-be-built netted sea pen that Lolita would call home, the final step would be to use a crane to carefully slip her into the water.
“It’s a wild endeavor,” Singh said.
Every step of the way will also require permits from all levels, from Miami-Dade County to Florida to Washington state to an alphabet soup of government agencies, including perhaps the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Will she survive the move?
This is the No. 1 question dividing many marine scientists and whale advocates in the decades-long debate over Lolita’s fate.
The Friends of Lolita group, along with PETA and other marine mammal and animal rights groups, argue that Lolita will be fine after a years-long transition period in a sea pen with trainers teaching her how to survive in the wild.
But in the only example of the technique so far, the orca Keiko who inspired the film “Free Willy,” only lived for five years after leaving its tank. Four of those years were spent in a sea pen. Keiko died of pneumonia one year after a full release in the wilds of Norway.
A 2009 review of his case published in a peer-reviewed journal concluded his release was “not successful.” The study found that Keiko kept swimming back to the caretakers’ boat, even as they encouraged the whale to swim on its own and ignored it.
“The release of Keiko demonstrated that release of long-term captive animals is especially challenging and while we as humans might find it appealing to free a long-term captive animal, the survival and well-being of the animal may be severely impacted in doing so,” the study said.
Marine scientists also worry that the pollution and diseases in the open ocean may be too much for the immune system of a whale that has spent half a century in an 80-foot-long by 35-foot-wide by 20-foot-deep tank.
However, there are challenges to living in captivity too. Hugo, Lolita’s onetime mate, died in 1980 of a brain aneurysm after repeatedly ramming its head into the side of their tank.
And the whale slated to be moved to the wilds next, Canada’s last captive orca, Kiska, was set to move this month. But Kiska, 47, died from a bacterial infection on March 9.
Is Lolita too old to move?
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, male killer whales can live up to 60 years in the wild, with an average lifespan of 30 years. Female killer whales typically live around 50 years but can last up to 90.
Orcas typically live shorter lives in captivity.
Lolita was captured on August 8, 1970, at 4 years old,. The whale is now 57.
Friends of Lolita said Thursday that the orca they believe may be Lolita’s mother is still swimming with a wild pod in the Pacific Northwest. She is 89 years old.
So, if the other considerable challenges could be met, Lolita could potentially have years or decades left to live in the wild.
How long will it take to be free?
Friends of Lolita and the Seaquarium estimate it could take up to two years before Lolita is truly swimming freely off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.
Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts and a wealthy philanthropist, is bankrolling most of the estimated $15 million to $20 million move. On Thursday, he said the cross-country move part of the equation could take place in six to nine months, with the rest of the time dedicated toward slowly acclimating Lolita to the wild in a sea pen.
“We don’t have a locked-in timeline,” he said. “Obviously the sooner, the better, but we’re not rushing like a fire drill.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2023 at 5:01 PM.
