The news is being met with optimism as activists have held onto hope for years that she could one day return to her ancestral waters.
Tokitae, who has been called Lolita while performing and Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut by her Lummi relatives, has lived in a small tank for roughly 52 years. Earlier this year news broke that she was severely ill – the new vet report released by ‘Friends of Lolita,’ indicates that she’s now on the mend.A team of independent veterinarians has been invited to the Miami Seaquarium to examine Tokitae the orca, and many are hoping she is in good health to one day return to Puget Sound.
The aspirational goal, according to Vinick, is to move her back to the Pacific Northwest. In fact, his team has long been working the Sacred Lands Conservancy on a living document that outlines steps that would need to take place. However, both Vinick and Sacred Seas have made it clear they can’t rush progress.
The story of Tokitae stretches back to the late 60s and 70s when groups rounded up members of the Southern Resident orca pods and captured them for sale. Whale catchers would toss noisemakers into the water to herd orca like cattle into a narrow area – then they’d block the entrance to pull the babies out of the water. Dozens of orca were captured this way. Tokitae is the only whale from those captures that is still alive.
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