Dear Friends of Lolita,
The campaign to bring Lolita home marches on, literally. The University of Miami organization Humans Helping Animals is continuing the once-a-month demonstrations at the Seaquarium. The next one will be on Sunday, December 5, at 12 Noon. Anyone who can be in the Miami area at that time is encouraged to participate. New leaflets are now being readied for distribution at the demo and elsewhere. Just email to tokitae@pugetsound.net for more information.
The demonstrations let the Seaquarium management and staff, as well as the media and the public, know that the campaign for Lolita goes on. The demonstrations raise issues that have still not been talked about much in Miami, like Lolita's continued use of the calls that only her family in the wild use, and about the lifetime bonds within her extended family, about her longevity and her ability to bring new healthy young orcas into her family. When all the evidence is considered anyone with a heart must conclude that Lolita needs the chance to return to home and family. At the same time we are working with the Animal League Defense Fund to prepare a legal argument that the tank is illegally small.
The powerful one-hour documentary "Lolita - Spirit in the Water" is once again playing in cities across the country. We've received calls and emails of support for the campaign from Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Albuquerque and Idaho in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Lolita's family paid an extended visit to Puget Sound. For an entire week orcas from all three pods were seen dining on chum salmon just north of Seattle. J16, a 27-year-old mother of two young males, was seen with her new calf born in just the past month. And L98, the new calf first seen in September, was also seen and is doing well.
Anyone doing their holiday shopping by the internet can find Free Lolita T-shirts, casette tapes, bumper stickers and chocolate bars at www.freelolita.net, with proceeds going toward the campaign effort.
Thanks for all your support.
Howard
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Free Lolita Update #19
November 7, 1999
Apologies are due for the absence of Updates. A series of transitions in the past two months have made it difficult to send anything out on the Free Lolita list. In early September Tokitae board members and campaign supporters met in Washington to assess future plans. Toward the end of that trip my hard drive slipped its bearings (clunk-clunk) as you were informed via Free Lolita Update #18, written by Susan Berta and graciously sent out by Mike Green of Rockisland Communications.
In that Update you heard about Tweak, the 5 or 6 month-old orca from Lolita's family who became an orphan when its mother died of complications from its birth. The beauty of that story was that Tweek was seen and filmed for Seattle TV viewers in the company of his brother and uncle, 9 and 13 years old respectively. During the filming Tweek's brother actually caught a salmon and offered it to Tweak, for all the world to see. For two days Tweak seemed to be gaining in size and strength.
The sad part of that story is that Tweak's mother died at all, and that Tweak himself is now missing and has probably died. This makes 8 orcas who have died in the past year from the community, far more than the 1 or 2 mortalities that would be expected according to normal longevity. The Southern Resident community now numbers only 83 orcas.
Toxicology results have not come in yet on L51, but evidence is abundant that the Southern Resident community of orcas - Lolita's family - has accumulated life-threatening proportions of PCB's, among other pollutants. KING-5 news in Seattle aired a special report on the problem Thursday night. PCB's tend to lodge in fatty tissues, especially in the blubber and mother's milk. They mimic, and take the place of, essential hormones that influence reproduction and immune systems, without acting in the appropriate way to provide growth and health. Studies have shown that when quantities reach more than three parts per million (ppm) some damage can occur in mammals. Humans now carry an average of about one ppm of PCB contamination. Recent studies conducted by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans have concluded that Southern community orcas have accumulated an average of about 140 ppm. Tweek's mother, L51, may have succumbed to the toxic load she was carrying, and Tweek appeared to have been born prematurely and may not have had a chance from the start.
For these reasons the Tokitae Foundation board has decided it is vitally important to provide public education about pollutants in the marine ecosystem, and how to clean them up. Habitat protection and restoration have been fundamental to the mission of the Foundation since it's inception in 1996, together with the Lolita campaign and fostering general orca awareness and education. We are now launching the Orcas in Our Midst Educational Outreach Program, consisting of republishing the 1996 middle-school booklet Orcas in Our Midst, plus a new edition of the award-winning film documentary Orcas in the Balance, first produced in 1998 by Outpost Productions and People for Puget Sound, a poster display for classrooms, and a teachers' activity guide. These materials will accompany speaking engagements to take place in schools and community meetings, as well as business and government entities throughout western Washington. On Friday night Tokitae board member Kelley Balcomb-Bartok gave an almost lyrical talk and slide presentation about the orcas' need for a healthy habitat, to citizen representatives from the fledgling Marine Resource Commissions of seven Washington counties.
That's the long way of explaining that the Tokitae Foundation has new email and street addresses. We are now at 2403 So. Northbluff Rd., Greenbank, WA 98253, and the email address is tokitae@pugetsound.net. The phone number is (360) 678-3451. All former addresses of both types are no longer operational.
The campaign for Lolita goes on, of course. We are examining legal avenues to bring her long captivity to an end. Supporters in Miami will continue to stage demonstrations in front of the Seaquarium, and we'll be letting you know when those occur. In mid-May of this year, Arthur Hertz, owner of the Seaquarium, appeared on Miami television to proclaim that the Seaquarium would begin construction of Lolita's new tank "in six months." That time has nearly gone by, and there is no sign of any new tank, which would not solve Lolita's problem anyway. We will point out to the media that this promise was just another false claim to dampen the ever-rising sentiment that Lolita must be allowed to return to her home waters.
It is not known if Lolita carries a toxic load similar to what is found in her family. If not, the prospect is that she would live a long healthy life back in her native habitat, and could even bring a precious new baby orca or two into the community. In any case, she deserves to live among her family, in the waters where she was born, and she is fully capable of doing so.
We are interested in hearing from you at any time. This is a time of new beginnings in many ways, and as we join forces with environmental advocates in the Pacific Northwest and around the globe it is important to remember that everyone can play a meaningful role.
More later...
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Free Lolita Update #18
October 6, 1999
News about Lolita's family~
The past 2 weeks have been full of incredible whale dramas in the Pacific
Northwest, where Lolita's family lives. It has been a tough year for the
Southern Resident Community of orcas (J, K & L pods). Eight orcas have died
this year, most of them years before their natural life expectancy, along
with the sad news of 2 or 3 stillborn calves, bringing the total population
of the community down to 83.
But there is good news, too......
1) New calf born to Lolita's family!
2) Family struggling to care for orphaned orca
1)New calf born to Lolita's family!
Sept. 19th, Center for Whale Research, San Juan Island, WA.
Howard Garrett was seeing his first wild orca in over two years, watching
from the deck as L-67 swam by (L67 is from Lolita's sub-pod, & is possibly
her sister). She was traveling alone, which is unusual.......but wait, what
was that little splash surfacing next to L67?! A new calf appeared at
L67's side, tiny dorsal popping up through the surface next to its
mother......what a wonderful surprise to us all! L67 is a young, first-time
mother, & the first week there were reports of orcas in K pod helping out
with the "parenting" of the new baby. At last report, L67 seemed to be
nursing & caring for the baby, L98, who seems to be doing fine. This is a
much needed & welcome addition to the family, & a truly wonderful welcome
home surprise for Howie~
2) Family struggling to care for orphaned orca
San Juan Islands, WA
And now on to the bad news, but also to the heart of how incredible these
orca neighbors of ours really are. The eighth orca death occured sometime
last week, when the body of 26 year old L51, or "Nootka", was found off the
coast of Vancouver Island (she is also from Lolita's subpod). Nootka had
just had a calf last May, who had been born premature and underweight.
After Nootka's death, there was much concern for the little unweaned calf,
L97, who seemed to be losing weight. But later in the week, Ken Balcomb of
the Center for Whale Research witnessed & videotaped L97's uncle & brother
catching fish & trying to feed small bits of it to the young orphaned calf,
who seemed to be keeping up with the pod & looking stronger. The calf has
not been seen for several days, but there is still hope that its family is
working to help it survive. The story below appeared in today's Seattle
Times - we'll keep you posted as to any new develpments~
Susan Berta,
Tokitae Foundation
SEATTLE TIMES, Tuesday, October 5, 1999:
Orphaned orca's human family struggles to help it survive
by Robert T. Nelson, Seattle Times staff reporter
The biblical passage says nothing about actually caring for the animals or
treating them with some respect. That falls to Ken Balcomb, whose Center
for Whale Research has been obsessed the past week with the fate of an
orphaned, 5-month-old orca struggling to survive in the Strait of Juan de
Fuca.
In the old days - the 1960s and '70s - man's "dominion" over orca whales
involved capturing young calves, taking them from their mothers and
siblings and hauling them off to places such as Sea World.
Capturing orcas in Washington state waters ended in 1976, the year Balcomb
began studying them for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA). Since then, with a little help from state and federal governments,
and lots of support from volunteers, Balcomb is now on a first-name basis
with the dozens of orcas that roam the coastline and through the San Juan
and Gulf islands.
"We've been able for the past 25 years to study them like they are in a
fishbowl, almost," Balcomb said.
"Over time, we've watched whales grow up and, of course, we've seen them
pass away."
That is why the recently orphaned orca is in the news and not some
anonymous victim of the wild. The calf's mother died around Sept. 25,
before the calf was weaned. The orphan has been tracked for a week. It was
last spotted on Saturday.
If he survives, he will be named Tweak when the Whale Museum and the
researchers at the center, both in Friday Harbor, San Juan County, hold
their annual adoption and naming party.
Family takes up the feedings
Balcomb's whale-research center operates on about $60,000 a year. None of
the staff gets a salary, and virtually all support comes in the form of
private donations and volunteers - 50 or 60 a year - from Earthwatch of
Watertown, Mass.
Because they have been able to keep such close track of the orca population
here, researchers know precisely when Tweak was born, when his mother was
born, that she gave birth to two undersized calves, and that she most
likely died from a massive infection caused by the birth. A necropsy is
under way.
They know who the baby whale's grandmother, brothers and uncle are. And
during the past week, researchers have watched this family rally around the
orphan and offer him food.
"I'd heard they were caregiving creatures, but I'd never actually seen it,"
Balcomb said. "It's the most dramatic example. We were out in our boat
monitoring the condition of the whale. We saw this thrashing about. Turns
out his brother was capturing salmon, breaking them apart and appearing to
offer it to the baby."
The feeding appears to be working. Researchers tracked the emaciated calf
by boat last Tuesday until it got too dark. They gave up the watch
expecting the baby whale to die overnight. When they caught up with him the
next day, they were amazed to find him alive and appearing stronger.
There had been some talk by Canadian authorities of capturing the calf,
Balcomb said. If it was highly improbable the calf would survive on its
own, they also would attempt to intervene and give it some formula. Since
it appears to be taking some fish, that may be a moot point.
Such interest in a lone whale is understandable, say researchers who spend
their days tracking animals at the top of the food chain.
"Who's alive? Who's born? Who's dead? What that gives you, as a scientist,
are the life-history parameters," said Marilyn Dahlheim, a biologist with
the National Marine Mammal Laboratory at Sand Point.
"It's critical for understanding population dynamics. In the event there's
a problem, you know when a species is starting to get into trouble."
Orca mother died young
Balcomb and Dahlheim, who tracks killer whales in Alaska, say they care
about the whales in ways that are both personal and scientific.
The mother whale that washed up in a bed of seaweed on Race Rocks near
Victoria was named Nootka, and her death at age 26 came midway through an
orca's normal life span.
In studying her carcass, they have determined she probably didn't pass the
placenta when she gave birth in May. That caused an infection that probably
caused her to stop lactating long before Tweak was ready to be weaned.
"We've taken blubber samples and tissues from all the organ systems" of the
dead whale, Balcomb said. "Collectively, they should paint a picture of
what went wrong."
Balcomb and Canadian researchers expect to find PCBs and other
contaminants.
"I think, in general, people don't understand and know about this," Balcomb
said. "Even though it's a beautiful, gorgeous area we live in, it's a toxic
soup, and they're swimming in it. That's a bit of an over"state"ment, but
the toxins attracted to fats accumulate to super-high levels in these
animals. That's what's happened to the whales."
Number of deaths `not natural'
In the past five years, the orca population in Puget Sound has dropped by
15, to 83 total. Balcomb and his center's volunteers have seen 30 orcas die
- many prematurely.
"That pattern of mortality is not natural," he said. "It's not like these
are old whales dying. And there are going to be more. The question is, what
are we going to do? We've got to begin developing some techniques for
dealing with environmental problems that we caused."
Balcomb says he feels the kind of affection for the whales that he would
for a dog in his care for years. And he and Canadian researchers gave
serious consideration to extraordinary measures to nourish the orphan.
Using a technique they developed for testing porpoises, they were preparing
to net Tweak between two boats and force-feed him a formula. But they
decided against it.
Now, as the world watches, Tweak's fate rests with the 9-year-old brother
and uncle who've been giving him morsels of salmon.
"At the point where it's obvious his family is unable to care for him and
abandons him, which at this point they have not done, I'd say at that point
we have to write him off as a living member of this community," Balcomb
said.
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Ceremony and Tradition
August 24, 1999
On Monday afternoon there was a commemoration ceremony at Lime Kiln Lighthouse on San Juan Island to mark the loss of J6, also known as "Ralph," a 42-year-old male orca who disappeared in 1998. We can be sure he died since membership in the family continues for the whales' entire lifetimes. Readers of this list may have read the announcement of the ceremony for J6 last week.
The three pods of the Southern Resident community, J, K and L pods, (Lolita's extended family) generally travel in groups of subpods hundreds of miles apart, sometimes up and down the west side of San Juan Island during summer months, as well as ranging far north into Canada, south into Puget Sound and west into the Pacific Ocean. About five or six times per year all three pods get together somewhere in their vast habitat and engage in what is called a "superpod." It's an active time, including much breaching, tail-lobbing and spyhopping as small groups and individuals move rapidly among the community, meet up, greet one another and frolic together.
At 1:30 PM on Monday, the announced time of the ceremony for J6, a superpod event of the Southern community commenced within a few hundred yards of Lime Kiln Lighthouse. The two ceremonies took place simultaneously.
Below is a first person report by Susan Berta.
August 23rd....It was a beautiful day in the San Juans. The sun that's been eluding us all summer shone brightly - the whales, who hadn't been around for a few days, were travelling north up the west side of San Juan Island, arriving at the Lime Kiln Lighthouse precisely at 1:30 p.m, just as Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro began his "Goodbye to Ralph (J6)" speech.
Incredibly, as Ralph began his talk, he was interrupted & upstaged by an amazing show of support from J6's family (but I don't think he minded...)! All three pods went frolicking by, with no less than SIX full breaches exploding right behind Ralph as he spoke of his strong connection with the whales, & J6 in particular, & what a great loss it is to us all to lose J6 the other whales that did not return this year. Ralph's connection with he whales was clearly obvious to everyone there who witnessed that magical
moment that was just too perfect & precise to be a mere coincidence. Magic, maybe, but not coincidence.
Ralph & his wife Karen also spoke of Lolita, & of their hopes & efforts to bring her back to her family in Puget Sound. Ralph & Karen are clearly dedicated & committed to our neighboring community of whales. They are working not only for Lolita's freedom, but for the "whale-being" of all of J, K & L pods. They emphasized the importance of keeping their habitat clean & healthy, bringing back the salmon runs, & reducing other human impacts, such as harrassment by whale watchers & recreational boaters.
After the speech, Ralph & Karen tossed a wreath into the water to honor the passing of their beloved J6, & the other whales we lost this year, & laid roses on the rocks in their memory.
These losses were heartbreaking for us all - but to witness the rest of the pods' frolicking & breaching, the new babies leaping clear out of the water, full of life & vigor - was a vivid reminder to us all that we need
to keep fighting for their whale-being & safety, & for a healthier habitat for them to swim in. And we need to keep fighting for Toki's freedom - to reunite her with her family so she can frolic & breach & swim freely with her own kind, & someday have some babies of her own to help the Southern Resident Community bounce back from the losses of the past few years.
I am so thankful to have been a witness to the magic of yesterday's enthusiastic display by our whale friends, & to know that we have amazingly wonderful people like Ralph & Karen Munro working for Lolita & her family's whalefare. And I can't think of anyone more deserving of a "Six-Breach Salute"! I believe the whales know much more than we realize, & they know that Ralph is a true friend who will never cease his struggle for their safety & freedom~
Susan Berta
The Tokitae Foundation
susanb@whidbey.net
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Lolita Update #16
August 20, 1999
Dear Friends of Lolita,
Two news bits for you.
1) Ralph says goodbye to "Ralph" (J-6)
2) Surprise demo at Seaquarium on Sunday
1) Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro is a Tokitae Foundation board member and a defender of orcas for over 25 years. In 1976 he filed suits against federal and state agencies, as well as Sea World, and succeeded in stopping any further captures of orcas in Washington State. Sec. Munro has issued the following announcement. Anyone who can attend this event is warmly invited and any messages for Sec. Munro sent to tokitae@bellsouth.net will be forwarded to him. Note: The waters off San Juan Island are in the center of the 400-mile wide habitat of the Southern Resident orca community, which is the extended family, or clan, of "Ralph" and continues to be Lolita's family.
Media Advisory
August 16, 1999
To: News Media
From: David Brine, Communications Director 360/753-2526
Subject: Ralph says goodbye to "Ralph" (J-6) - 8/23/99
FYI - Secretary of State Ralph Munro will hold a brief ceremony on San Juan Island next Monday (August 23) to bid farewell to Orca whale "J-6". The whale, a member of J-Pod, was nick-named "Ralph" in 1983 in honor of Munro's efforts to prevent the capture of killer whales in Washington waters and to promote the viewing of whales in the wild. Munro is one of only two individuals to be so honored.
There have been no sightings of J-6 since December of last year, and officials at the Center for Whale Research are convinced that the whale is dead at the estimated age of 42. The loss of J-6 comes in the midst of an alarming decline in the southern resident Orca whale population. The population, which had been increasing steadily for more than a decade, has dropped from 98 to 84 animals in the last four years.
The public is invited to attend the ceremony, which will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, August 23, at Lime Kiln Point State Park, on the west side of San Juan Island. The park was acquired from the federal government in 1984 and is a popular spot for viewing whales and other marine life.
# # #
2) The next demonstration to stand up for Lolita's return to her home waters will take place on Sunday, August 22, from Noon to 1 PM, in front of the Seaquarium. Banners, pennants and refreshments will be provided. We are changing our usual schedule of holding demos on the second Sunday of each month. All friends of Lolita in South Florida are invited to attend. Plans for future demos will be made at the demo on Sunday.
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Lolita Update #15
August 10, 1999
More news from the Free Lolita Campaign...
1) August 8 demonstration
2) Penn Cove capture commemoration
3) "Lolita phone home" experiment draws international interest
4) Dateline story on Keiko
5) Laura's Get Lost interview
1) Under a tropical sun and a few low trees on the grassy strip beside the causeway, around 15 of us spread out alongside 50 yards of road with our signs for Lolita. The half-dozen county sherrif's cars let people know something was going on, so they were going slow enough to read the signs and banners, especially the one reading "HONK FOR LOLITA'S FREEDOM." There were plenty of honks. I presented the Seaquarium with our proposal to allow Lolita to communicate with her family. Lisa Koncar came all the way from Seattle for this one.
Each time we demonstrate in front of the Seaquarium we show that we aren't going away, and more people begin to think about whether Lolita really should be stuck in that tiny tank, and that maybe she should go back to her native waters. There is a large buildup of opinion in South Florida that has been told Lolita's phased release would not work, but by demonstrating our resolve month after month people are beginning to think about it all over again.
Scheduling note: At our gathering after the demonstration it was decided that since I will be traveling to the Pacific Northwest from September 10 to October 4 we will hold our next demonstration in two weeks, on Sunday, August 22, from Noon to 1 PM in front of the Seaquarium.
2) Penn Cove capture commemoration
On the evening of Sunday, August 8th, a gathering of 30 of Lolita's friends took place on the Coupeville Wharf on Penn Cove, where she was captured 29 years before. We began with an update on the Free Lolita campaign, & talked about the progress that has been made during the past year, but lamented the fact that we were commemorating yet another year of captivity for Toki, rather than celebrating her freedom. Hopefully the next gathering will be her homecoming celebration....
We also talked about Toki's family, & the news that 7 members of her related pods did not return this year, & the importance of clean water, healthy salmon runs, watersheds & forests. And the importance of returning Toki - a healthy, mature female capable of having several offspring - back to her pod, to help bring the population back up.
There was good news too - two new babies born into the Southern Resident Community this year, & the fact that orcas have visited Penn Cove THREE times this year - a very rare event after the violent captures in the Cove in 1970 and 1971.
Several in the crowd shared their memories of witnessing the Penn Cove Captures - Barbara Stevens of Coupeville worked at the Captain Whidbey Inn (overlooking where the capture took place) in 1970, & has been so distressed by what she saw during that week that she has been unable to talk about it until now. We deeply appreciate her courage & willingness to share some of those memories with us on Sunday, & we all had tears in our eyes as she described the sound of the orcas' cries, & how she had to restrain her young son who was so angry that no one was stopping the captures.
The gathering ended with Vern & Karl Olsen & Deb Lund singing orca & Lolita songs, & with a procession out to the end of the pier, with Native Flute music and the tossing of a fir & pine wreath into the waters of Penn Cove, in memory of the orcas killed in the captures, of those who have died in captivity, of those who didn't return with their pods this year, & of Toki's freedom, lost for 29 years now. We joined in together to sing a resounding version of Vern's "Come Home Lolita", & left with renewed hope & inspiration to continue the struggle for Toki's freedom & her return to her family here in Puget Sound.
Many thanks to all who joined us on Sunday, & to all who couldn't be there but sent us their best wishes & thoughts of freedom for Toki. She has not given up hope, so we must not either.
Susan Berta
The Tokitae Foundation
Whidbey Island,WA
3) "Lolita phone home" experiment draws international interest.
The idea of allowing Lolita to converse with her family, as presented in the Tokitae Foundation's Acoustic Experiment proposal has been well reported in Miami and in England. After the demonstration on Sunday, the BBC program "Up All Night" called for a telephone interview with me about the proposal and broadcast our discussion throughout the UK.
Back in Miami, early Monday morning newstands and business offices receiving the Miami Daily Business Review were treated to this headline on the upper right front page: "Lolita - Call your mom!" In a light but supportive tone, columnist Tony Doris described the proposal: "The draft, citing some 50 scientific studies, notes research has established that different killer whale families have their own distinctive sets of calls, sometimes termed dialects." This is an important piece of the puzzle for understanding why Lolita would probably rejoin her pod of birth.
4) Dateline story on Keiko
If anyone happened to see the Dateline-NBC on July 28, you may have been surprised to hear that Keiko has not been catching fish, because we know he's been catching fish for over two years. This is part of the great misconception that has been circulating widely saying Keiko is not ready for his phased release to ultimately join up with his pod of birth. Fortunately Dateline is now working on a new treatment of Keiko's story with a more accurate assessment of his capabilities and a more optimistic view of his prospects upon release.
5) Laura's Get Lost interview
Don't miss the interview with ex-Seaquarium trainer Laura Singer in the current issue of the web magazine Get Lost. Laura was with us on Sunday to stand up for Lolita.
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Lolita Update #14
July 30, 1999
Items:
1) Big August 8th demo coming up.
2) USDA says it can't find engineer's name "for months."
3) What's up with Keiko?
1) August 8, 1999 is the 29th anniversary of the roundup of orcas that took place during a superpod gathering of the three pods that make up the Southern community in Washington State inland waters. Six-year-old Lolita, first called Tokitae, was one of six young whales taken from the community during the following week. On Sunday, August 8 the Tokitae Foundation will conduct the 4th monthly demonstration at the Miami Seaquarium. We'll present a proposal to the Seaquarium and to the press calling for a two-way cellular communications link between Lolita and her community of birth in Puget Sound. Since such an experiment would demonstrate that Lolita has retained the ability to communicate with her extended family, the Seaquarium is expected to reject the proposal, as they have since 1987.
For those in Washington, there will also be an informal ceremony/gathering the evening of August 8th on the shores of Penn Cove, where Lolita was separated from her family and taken from the water to a flat-bed truck. There will be music and fellowship. If you'd like to attend or help with planning, please contact Susan Berta at susanb@whidbey.net.
The July 11 demonstration at the Seaquarium was well attended and seemed to reach a large number of people driving by. A sign saying "Honk If Lolita Should Go Free!" was answered with a steady stream of honks, which could be heard inside the park.
2) For more than a month now the USDA has been dragging its feet about answering requests for information on its measurements of the depth of Lolita's tank. In June architect's drawings from 1969 were found indicating that the shallow end of the tank, which the USDA says is 12' deep and which must be at least 12' deep to be included in the overall measurement, is only 10' deep. When this area is not included in the overall measurements it is doubtful that the tank meets the minimum requirements of the Animal Welfare Act for containing an orca.
The USDA finally said an independent engineer took the measurements, but they wouldn't give out the engineer's name. In early July we requested the name of the engineer. On July 29 the USDA said that due to a backlog of requests it won't be able to find the engineer's name "for months." The real question is whether anybody actually got in the water with Lolita and the four dolphins to measure the depth (the sides are sloped so it can't be done from the side), or whether the Seaquarium was merely asked for the measurements, and gave the USDA numbers that made the tank sound legal. Of course there still may be bureaucratic explanations for the delay. We also have other means to find the engineer. We'll certainly keep you posted.
3) [Note: Sorry for the length of this report on Keiko. It may seem more academic than you'd expect in a Lolita Update, but like Lolita, Keiko remains captive not by sinister schemes but by our society's beliefs, and the politics that determine those beliefs. To get her home again we need to take a good, long look at them, and then change them.]
What IS up with Keiko? He seems ready for a carefully monitored, phased release to the open ocean.
• Keiko was declared perfectly healthy and ready for release by his veterinarian, Dr. Lanny Cornell, in January of this year.
• He has been catching fish for two years now to levels at least half his daily needs.
• He is showing phenomenal stamina and diving ability (17+ min.).
• He is making complex vocalizations, indicating he is still capable of communicating in his pod's unique dialect, which he was born with and used in captivity in Canada until he was moved to Mexico in 1985.
• Keiko is highly social, often desiring interaction with the humans near him. This eagerness to interact is typical of his species and bodes well for his willingness and ability to resume any needed social skills, probably even more quickly than he regained his physical health after near death from the stresses of captivity in Mexico City.
So why hasn't Keiko been let out of his bay pen by now for a monitored, radio-tagged ocean trial? To gain a sense of why Keiko is still in his pen and why there is still no firm plan or timetable for his release, we need to back up a bit and look at the bigger picture. We need to look first at the industry that is setting the tone of the conversation about Keiko. The marine park industry is a big industry, like the oil industry, or big tobacco. Every industry tries to help consumers make up their minds. Like the tobacco industry, the marine park industry is adept at forming public opinion. They hire and schmooze scientists and journalists and feed information to their employees and investors, and finance massive advertising campaigns to convince consumers that their product is harmless and fun.
The most important belief confronting the Lolita campaign, the doctrine that is essential for the survival of the marine park industry is: "Once in captivity-always in captivity." Among marine park personnel no discussion is allowed about the merits of releasing captive whales and dolphins, except to advise against any such attempts. Any good candidate is declared to be unfit for release. To discourage any talk about releasing whales and dolphins the ocean is depicted as "cold, dark and ferocious" (in the words of Brad Andrews, VP for Zoological Operations for all four Sea World parks). As long as these messages (that captive cetaceans become too weak for life in the wild, which is terribly cold, dark and ferocious) are pumped down the pipeline through advertising, employees, and compliant journalists and scientists, there will be no serious talk about releasing whales and dolphins, and people will continue to believe it can't be done. Such was the case until Free Willy, that is.
Through an unlikely sequence of events started by a major motion picture, Keiko was brought out of Mexico and after two and a half years in Oregon was moved to Iceland last September. Now he is poised to become the movie star that disproves the marine park industry's edifice of falsehoods and nay-saying that have been essential to their business plans since the first dolphinariums opened in Florida four decades ago.
Keiko is now ready to show the world that even after long term captivity, many (maybe all) of those orcas captured from the wild can ultimately be released back to their native habitats to rejoin the pods they were born in. The entire enterprise of watching orcas and dolphins performing in marine parks would then be compared with our new appreciation of their lives in natural habitats. Marine parks would begin to look obsolete and abusive.
But investments and jobs seem to be at stake. The park industry could instead make a transition to a new kind of high-tech, interactive, simulated marine environment, a blend of the thrill rides now packing them in and the conservation-oriented, educational aquariums popping up all over the world. They could go on making lots of money even after the dancing dolphin acts fade into quaint history. But the industry perceives a threat instead of an opportunity, so they continue reinforcing the big lie that Keiko is too weak, too habituated to humans, and just too nice, to rejoin his family pod. They think Keiko is a slug who wouldn't stand a chance out in the open ocean.
In general, marine park employees have little or no experience with oceanic whales. Scientific field research on orcas is generally ignored and the results denied by park management. Most park employees haven't seen pods travel in synch with one another, meet up with other pods and perform greeting ceremonies in which they roll around together in choreographed ritual sequences. Without that background, they mistake Keiko's affectionate nature for weakness, when actually that affection is normal for an orca. Keiko's obvious amiability is precisely his social strength and the glue that still bonds him to his extended family. It's what will allow him to join up with, and be accepted by, the orcas with whom he shares a family and cultural history.
The marine park industry doesn't know much about free-ranging orcas, and doesn't want the public to know much either. They haven't observed the whales' graceful mastery of their world, always aware and in control, as they have been for tens of millions of years. They don't understand the implications of the fact that they live in cohesive families their entire lives, unlike any other mammal known. This is what we have learned about Orcinus orca during the past two decades. The intensely bonded, highly developed cultural family life of orcas is the most important thing about them and the thing we need to learn most. Keiko is ready to teach us.
But the marine park industry still has a tight grip on our society's understanding of orcas and of Keiko. Most of the staff involved in Keiko's care-and they've obviously done a fantastic job-learned their skills, and their beliefs, from the marine park industry. They're finding it very difficult to realize that Keiko is perfectly ready for the open ocean. They can't seem to bring themselves to give it a try. They only really know the industry-approved way of thinking about Keiko.
The truth about Keiko's capabilities, about the physical, mental and social strengths of other captive orcas, is gradually becoming known by the public. In Iceland, a lot will change when that new understanding of the species takes hold and Keiko is allowed to head out to the seas of his birth. A lot will change in Miami too, since the same arguments and misinformation are used to prevent Lolita's return to her home waters. It's just a matter of when.
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Lolita Update #13
July 8, 1999
Items:
1) July Demonstration coming up Sunday, July 11, Noon to 1:30 pm
2) New Times article has arrived!
3) Lolita's pool appears to be illegal
4) Tillikum drowns visitor
1) The July Demonstration at the Seaquarium is coming up Sunday, July 11, Noon to 1:30 pm. This time we will be standing on the West side of the main entrance to the Seaquarium, so we can face the majority of the traffic coming to the Seaquarium. So parking will be on the beach road parallel to the causeway. Turn right on Mast Academy Road and you're there already. Just go down the road as far as possible toward the Seaquarium and park wherever there is room. It's a little farther walk, including crossing a crosswalk at the school bus entrance, but it may be more effective at spreading some awareness to people about to go in to see Lolita. Ya'll come!!
2) The New Times article has arrived! It's an in-depth investigation titled "Livin' La Vida Orca" (cha-cha-cha). It tells Lolita's story and the reasons why she could and should get the chance to go home and return to her family. It also shows what we're up against. In the past few months while the article was being written the level of support for the Lolita campaign has risen exponentially, so it's not quite the joust with a windmill it may seem to be. There are many forces at work to get Lolita home, some more obvious than others. This is the most comprehensive treatment of the whole situation written to date. There's a lot of information here, especially about the natural history and amazing social lives of orcas. No other media report has included this depth of insight into orcas. You'll also learn more than you ever wanted to know about my checkered past moving sideways through life like a crab. Just take what you need and leave the rest. It's on the web at Livin' La Vida Orca!.
3) The last message to this list was the 6/22 bulletin about the discovery of 1969 documents that show that the tank is only 10' deep (not 12' as claimed by the USDA) on the shallow end, and only 18' deep (not 20') in the main pool. This means that the 10' deep part cannot be included in the overall measurements according to a letter from the USDA, which appears to make the entire tank illegal. So far the USDA has not answered my letter sent 6/22, but others have gotten answers, which say that the USDA used an engineer to take the measurements, but they won't tell us the name of the engineer without a Freedom of Information Act request. So we are requesting. Of course you'll know as soon as there is any news. Meantime, please contact:
W. Ron DeHaven
Deputy Administrator, APHIS
US Dept. of Agriculture
4700 River Road, Unit 84
Riverdale, MD 20737-1234
Email: Ron.Dehaven@usda.gov
Tel: (301) 734-4980, Fax: (301) 734-4328
Please ask Mr. DeHaven (politely) to produce a document that shows that someone has actually measured the depth of the whale pool and the medical pool, or if no such document can be produced, measure the tank depth to see if the medical pool is really only 10' deep as the architect's drawings show. Over 15,000 letters and coupons have arrived at the National Enquirer to ask Florida Senator Bob Graham to intervene on Lolita's behalf. Sen. Graham is from Miami and his record shows he may help, if sufficient public pressure is applied. Sen. Graham can be reached at:
Senator Bob Graham
44 W. Flagler St.
Miami FL 33130
Ph: (305) 536-7293
4) Tillikum, the 20-year-old male orca at Sea World Orlando, has drowned a man who sneaked into his pool at night. He was found in the morning draped over Tillikum's back behind the dorsal fin. This death is eerily similar to the death of Keltie Byrne, which Tillikum took part in. I wrote a letter to various newspapers, thusly:
Dear Editor,
The death at Sea World appears to be a sign of Tillikum's pent up anger after eight years of solitary confinement. There is no record of a human death caused by any free orca. Orcas are possibly the most social species known to science, and yet Tillikum is held without social contact for life.
A similar scenario led to the death of Keltie Byrne in Victoria, BC in 1991. Byrne was killed by three whales, one of which was Tillikum. Byrne was wearing a diver's wet suit, and yet the whales managed to take it off without leaving a mark on her body. Tillikum also took off this unfortunate soul's swim suit, also without leaving any major injuries. The drowning in both cases appears to have been deliberate. Orcas seem to know humans need to breathe air, as Keiko, the orca star of Free Willy, demonstrated when he rescued a baby from drowning in his pool. Left without stimulation in a featureless tank, orcas tend to become bored and aggressive. During the winter months the whales in Victoria were ignored except for feeding. Orcas crave attention and interaction, but as Vick Abbey, GM of Sea World Orlando said on the TV news: "Our trainers don't interact with Tillikum."
Hugo, the pre-adolescent male who died at the Seaquarium in 1980, was known for bashing his head against the wall. He once crashed into an underwater bubble window, shattering it and slicing off the tip of his rostrum. He died of a brain aneurism in 1980.
This incident at Sea World is a reminder that the emotions of captive killer whales are not so difficult to understand. Seaquarium trainer Manny Velasco recalled both Hugo and Lolita becoming aggressive, lunging at trainers on the platform (from Edward R. Riciuti, Killers of the Sea). Marine mammal veterinarian Jay Sweeney wrote: "Aggression expressed by killer whales toward their trainers is a matter of grave concern. Aggressive manifestations toward trainers have included bumping, biting, grabbing, dunking, and holding trainers on the bottom of pools preventing their escape. Several situations have resulted in potentially life-threatening incidents. In a few such cases, we can attribute this behavior to disease or to the presence of frustrating or confusing situations, but in other cases, there have been no clear causal factors" (from Handbook of Marine Mammal Medicine).
What is most amazing is that Lolita, the last survivor out of 45 orcas from her community that were delivered to marine parks prior to 1976, has maintained sufficient peace of mind to stay alive for almost 29 years in that substandard tank, alone since 1980.
Signed,
Howard Garrett
Tokitae Foundation
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Lolita Update BULLETIN
June 22, 1999
Dear Friends of Lolita,
Please take a look at the letter below. As it describes, new documents have come to light that indicate that the medical pool part of Lolita's tank, which has been counted as part of the overall whale pool, is below the minimum depth. Please add your voice to convince the USDA to conduct new measurements to confirm the actual depth of the medical pool. The USDA should enforce the Animal Welfare Act.
In addition to the mailing address, here is other contact information:
Email: Ron.Dehaven@usda.gov
Tel: (301) 734-4980, Fax: (301) 734-4328
June 22, 1999
W. Ron DeHaven
Deputy Administrator, APHIS
US Dept. of Agriculture
4700 River Road, Unit 84
Riverdale, MD 20737-1234
Dear Mr. DeHaven,
We have corresponded over the past few years in regard to the captive orca "Lolita" maintained at the Miami Seaquarium. I appreciate your prompt responses. I have discovered documents that indicate an error on the part of the USDA and the Seaquarium in regard to the depth of the whale tank. According to the architect's drawings from 1969, the year the tank was built, the depth of the main pool is only 18 ft., not 20 ft. as reported by the USDA and the Seaquarium. More germane to the legal status of the tank, however, is the medical pool, which has been counted in the overall dimensions by APHIS. This portion of the tank is only 10 ft. deep, not 12 ft. as reported.
You stated in a letter dated Dec. 31, 1998: "The depth of Lolita's pool ranges from 12 to 20 ft, which exceeds the AWA requirement of 12 ft." Unless the construction of the pool did not follow the architect's drawings, the pool ranges from 10 to 18 ft. in depth, and is less than the AWA requirement of 12 ft. Therefore the medical pool cannot be counted. According to the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 9, Volume I, Section 3.104: "Those parts of the primary enclosure pool which do not meet the minumum depth requirement cannot be included when calculating space requirements for cetaceans."
The drawings are available for public viewing at the Miami-Dade County Building and Zoning Department, 111 NW 1st St., Miami, FL 33128, Ph: 305-375-2500. The architect was A. Herbert Mathes of Miami. The drawing in question is the vertical elevation of the scum gutter drawing. I have a copy, but the print is too light to fax or photocopy.
I request that you conduct further measurements of the whale tank, especially the depth of the medical pool. If it is in accord with the architect's drawing and is only 10 ft. deep, then I assume it will be necessary to reformulate the overall measurements, counting only the main tank. Since this tank measures 80 ft. by 35 ft., it is my understanding that the AWA requires that it be held unsuitable for containment of Lolita. Please provide documentation to explain the discrepancy between the architect's drawings and your measurements, or, if the drawings are correct, please use the power of your office to protect Lolita from this violation of the Animal Welfare Act.
Sincerely,
Howard Garrett
Tokitae Foundation
cc: Sen. Bob Graham
Sec. of State Ralph Munro
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Lolita Update #12
June 18, 1999
Dear Friends of Lolita,
• The demonstration at the Seaquarium on Sunday went absolutely swimmingly. About 20 people took part. With 7 giant banners and pennants flying we looked like 50. On Tuesday the Seaquarium staged a little demonstration of its own, in which some school kids presented letters saying it would be too dangerous for Lolita to leave Miami. That just makes it more of an issue for people to think about.
It would not be dangerous at all, of course.
• The next demonstration is set for Sunday, July 11, from Noon to 1:30 PM, in front of the Seaquarium. It keeps them on their toes to have a demonstration every month, and keeps the momentum going in a public way.
• For those in South Florida, set your VCR if possible to record WB-39 TV on Sunday, June 20, at (gasp!) 6:30 AM. It's a talk show called "Between the Lines." I'm the only guest, but the hostess did a good job of impersonating Seaquarium staff. See us thrash about and clash our light sabers.
• Next week the free weekly Miami muckraker newspaper New Times is scheduled to feature an article on the Lolita campaign. It's an in-depth investigative piece put together after two months of interviews and going back 20 years into history. I think they found more dirt on the Seaquarium
than on the campaign. It'll be on the web, so I'll send out the address as soon as it appears.
• An article called "Can Marine Mammals Go Home?" by yours truly is in the current Summer edition of Animal Watch, the national magazine of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
• National Enquirer reports that more than 15,000 letters, some containing multiple coupons, have arrived and will be delivered to Senator Bob Graham of Florida. Sen Graham has already contacted the USDA to ask about the measurements of Lolita's tank. The on-line petition is also gathering cybersignatures at http://www.e-thepeople.com/petition.cfm?PETID=147410 - please sign it. Other
petition drives are underway in many locations.
Thanks for all your fantastic support for Lolita's return trip to her home waters. The drum beat is getting stronger every day.
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Lolita Update #11
June 1, 1999
Dear Friends of Lolita,
This is a bit long, but it's been three weeks since the Mother's Day demonstration, and much has happened since then to tell you about. Now is also a good time to bring it all back to Lolita, as you'll see below in a report by Susan Berta, who visited Toki a few days ago.
Items:
1) See the Mother's Day demonstration photos.
2) Susan's visit to Lolita on May 23rd - what it's all about
3) Coming demonstrations at the Seaquarium.
4) Corky/Lolita Freedom Bus moves up the west coast.
5) G.W. Carver Middle School students helping to distribute petition.
6) New documents show what the Seaquarium has known all along.
7) Hertz gives up on expansion hopes and promises a new tank, yet again (the politics and economics).
***
1) Just in! Photos of the Mother's Day demonstration at the Seaquarium. These were taken by Susan Berta. If anyone has any other photos of the demo please send them either attached to emails as .jpg's, or just mail prints (Lolita Campaign, 920 Meridian Ave. #2, Miami Beach, FL 33139). All photos will be returned.
2) Susan's report on her visit to Lolita (Toki) May 23rd:
I had to go see Toki before I left Miami, & was thankful I wasn't recognized & kicked out, as was someone who'd attended the Mother's Day Demo & later that day was denied access to the Seaquarium.
I arrived before the Whale Stadium was open, so toured some of the rest of the park, which is small & dismal, & in desperate need of much renovation & repair. But with a little progressive thinking & infusion of money, the park has possibilities for an educational/interpretive/manatee rehab facility, instead of being an outdated & low-budget marine mammal circus. Anyone know any millionaires?!
I walked up to the edge of Toki's tank hoping to get to spend some quality time with her before the awful antics of show biz began. She was over by the trainer's island, with her back to me - but as soon as I reached the edge of the pool, she immediately turned around & made a beeline toward me! She came right up to me, & stayed there most of the 20 minutes with her nose right up to my face, only occasionally going to the bottom of the tank or wandering very far. She would move her head to one side, then the other, checking me out, & I'd do the same to her. Sometimes she'd open her mouth a little & show me her teeth, or swim by sideways with her eye up to get a better look. Once she came up close & let out a big wet breath that sprayed me & those next to me with "whale spit", as the little boy next to me called it! But mostly we just spent those moments nose to nose, sharing our thoughts & hopes & fears, & giving each other strength to continue the fight for her freedom.
I know we don't speak the same language, but I know we were communicating & connecting. I tried to let her know how many people are working so very hard to get her out of there. I told her that her family had visited Penn Cove 3 times this spring. I triedto bring her the love & energy of her family in the Northwest, both orca & human, & to let her know she won't have to be lonely forever.
My first impression was that she was much more sociable than when I'd seen her in March, when she'd spent most of the time at the bottom of the tank, lying motionless. It was good to see her active &
interacting, with the people before the show (mainly me!) & with the trainers after the show.
After the show they were doing an informal training session, for both Toki & the dolphins, & several new trainers as well. I had to laugh when one trainer was trying to show another trainer how to do
a certain swimming stroke, & Toki would watch first one, then the other trainer, as they tried to get it right - then Toki did the stroke, moving her pecs exactly like the trainer was moving her arms!
Next the new trainers practiced getting onto Toki's back in the pool & taking a ride on her. Several of the trainers were in the pool, & most of the dolphins were in the front part of the pool along with Toki. She swam up & one of the trainers got on her back, & suddenly Toki just took off across the pool at high speed & rammed the side of one of the dolphins - which surprised everyone, I think.
Knowing there have been many reports of her spending more time on the bottom of the tank or back in the corner of the medical pool, it makes me wonder if she's starting to show signs of some sort of manic depressive state. We need toget her out of there SOON!!!
Susan Berta
3) Lolita must return home soon, and to keep that message prominent at the Seaquarium and all over Miami we are planning more demonstrations similar to the Mother's Day demo. Dates are the second Sunday of each month for at least the next three months - June 13, July 11, and August 8 (29th anniversary of her capture), from Noon to 1 PM. Anyone living in South Florida is encouraged to join in and to contact others to generate more support for these demonstrations.
4) The FREEDOM BUS, with Corky's portrait on one side and Lolita's on the other, is making its way from event to event heading north to Seattle, displaying Corky's Freedom Banner at every stop. Corky was captured from the Northern Resident community about a year before Lolita's capture and is now held at San Diego Sea World. Both are ideal candidates for release programs. For more on Corky, see the OrcaLab web site.
5) Following a presentation on Lolita and her family at G.W. Carver Middle School on May 10, students there are helping to get signatures on a petition calling on Senator Graham to intercede on Lolita's behalf by filing a complaint with the USDA to enforce the Animal Welfare Act, because the tank's dimensions are unlawfully small. As mentioned, a bigger tank would be no solution, but the extremely small size of the present tank violates the Animal Welfare Act, according to the Humane Society of the US. The USDA should observe the law and condemn that tank, regardless of the resulting inconvenience to the Seaquarium.
You can sign the on-line petition to Sen. Graham.
Please sign on. The petition is automatically forwarded to Sen. Graham.
6) New documents show that the Seaquarium has known all along that orcas use complex languages and live in tightly-bonded societies. Four pages of sound bites written by the Seaquarium for the press and for employees to explain all about killer whales to the public, dating to 1970, have just been discovered. At that time the Seaquarium already had Hugo, a juvenile male who was captured in 1968 and died there in 1980.
In 1970 the Seaquarium told the world: "The Killer Whale is highly social. Family togetherness is a way of life." And, "Their language seems to be quite complex." And they were aware of orcas' long lives: "One in Australian waters whom the nearby villagers called 'Old Tom' is known to have lived at least 80 years."
Seaquarium management had to be aware of the languages used by orcas, because for the first eight months after Lolita was brought to Miami, she lived in the present manatee tank, probably one quarter of the size of the whale stadium tank, where Hugo was kept. Handlers were afraid they would fight if put together. Nobody knew that they were both captured from the Southern Resident community of orcas from Washington waters, and both were members of the same extended family. Aggression was of course not likely, but from September, 1970 to June, 1971 Hugo and Lolita communicated through the air across about 200 yards of the Seaquarium grounds in a highly varied array of calls, at very high volume.
But rather than learn something from this demonstration of the complex language used by Hugo and Lolita, all references to language were quickly dropped from public statements. The Seaquarium also now says orcas only live to 35 years of age, that only "extremists say Lolita's family would recognize her," and "an experiment in which speakers would be hooked up allowing Lolita to hear and interact with whales from her original pod in Puget Sound would not be based on science and would prove nothing." Teaser: You'll hear more about such an experiment in the next Free Lolita Update.
Additionally, the documents reveal that the depth of the medical pool is only 10' deep, which means it violates the Animal Welfare Act and cannot be counted as part of the main pool, and the USDA has repeatedly done. The Seaquarium and the USDA new claim that the medical pool is 12' deep.
7) On May 26 Arthur Hertz, owner of the Seaquarium, appeared on a TV news program for the first time since 1995 (when he looked down on Susan Wallace of NBC-6 in Miami and said "In real life you can't have happy endings like you can in movies"). He announced that the Seaquarium has given up on attempts to get an exemption from zoning regulations for a planned $70 million expansion (two appelate court decisions and the state legislature have soundly defeated such attempts in the past five years).
Hertz also said he would nevertheless go ahead and build Lolita a new 2.2 million gallon tank. He said construction would begin in six months. He said he planned to get a mate for Lolita so she can have a baby.
I try not to be too cynical, but naturally some skepticism is called for. Consider the economics of constructing a $12-15 million whale stadium, which will not by itself increase revenues to the park, to make life easier for a whale who is not likely to survive much longer in captivity anyway no matter how big the tank, according to statistics, at a time when orca captures are no longer feasible and captive populations are not increasing (much less are there spare adult males around for breeding purposes).
Look at the largest facilities in the world - Sea World's four parks - where eleven orcas have died since 1990. None lasted more than 20 years as captives, and all but one male died at less than half their normal average life expectancy of fifty years for females and thirty years for males. Since 1990, only six orcas have been born at Sea World parks. Sea World has purchased seven orcas from other parks since 1990 just to keep their shows going (See Orcas in Captivity). Throughout the park industry orca deaths are outpacing births, so no marine park would seem inclined to sell an orca to the Seaquarium.
Also consider that in 1996 the Seaquarium borrowed over $5 million from City National Bank of Florida, and that for about twenty years Mr. Hertz has been promising the public that he would build a new whale tank. One has to doubt that there will ever be a new tank at the Seaquarium. Nor will Sea World buy the Seaquarium because it is on county-owned property, which Sea World won't tolerate.
The Seaquarium has managed to convince a great many people that Toki only needs a new tank, so many people, if they believe him, may be temporarily appeased by this promise. But it bears repeating that statistics show that regardless of the size of the tank, orcas tend to die in their youth in any captive facility, so an increase in the size of the tank would not meet Toki's needs or significantly improve her situation even if the promise was genuine.
This announcement by Mr. Hertz seems to indicate that the pressure on the Seaquarium from grassroots efforts such as the Mother's Day demo, the letter-writing campaigns, the recent national publicity, and possibly pressure on the USDA, has brought him out into public view to personally promise a new tank for Toki, even though his failure to build a new tank in six months will further damage his credibility. Looks like the fortress walls are beginning to crack. It's looking like the Seaquarium is ripe for a takeover.
Please contact your friends, relatives, the media, public officials, celebrities, potential contributors, and anyone else you think might help bring Lolita home. And, to find a lovely Free Lolita T-shirt, bumper sticker, audio tape of Lolita's family, or a chocolate bar, (or just to make a credit card contribution) go to [no longer operating]. This is a huge group effort, and we're just starting to get the Lolita campaign rolling on a large scale. My heartfelt thanks to you all.
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