An ambitious plan announced last week to return Lolita, a killer whale held captive for more than a half-century, to her home waters in Washington’s Puget Sound thrilled those who have long advocated for her to be freed from her tank at the Miami Seaquarium.
under an agreement with regulators. The 5,000-pound animal lives in a tank 80 feet by 35 feet and 20 feet deep.
Plans call for bringing Lolita to a netted whale sanctuary of about 15 acres . She would be released into an enclosure the size of a couple football fields within that sanctuary, where she would be under round-the-clock care. With financial backing from Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, they have agreed to support Lolita long term, whether she's reintroduced or not.
She'll be flown to Washington, loaded onto a barge, floated to the sanctuary, and lowered by crane into her new home. While Keiko would approach wild orcas at times, he would return to his trainers' boat and generally sought out humans. He swam to Norway on his own — a journey of nearly 1,000 miles . But there again he was attracted to boats and people, and he died, apparently of pneumonia, at about age 27.
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