Tokitae (1966-2023)

Tokitae (also known as Lolita) was the sole orca living in the Whale Bowl at Miami Seaquarium for over 40 years. She passed away in August 2023 after more than 50 years of captivity.

Tokitae was born around 1966 in the Pacific Northwest as a member of the Southern Resident orca population. Her first few years of life were spent traveling 75-100 miles each day with her pod, learning their calls and how to catch her own fish by the end of her first year.

During this time, the craze for capturing orcas for entertainment began. In 1970, Tokitae was captured and chosen to be a companion for Hugo, the first orca to live at Miami Seaquarium in Florida. A veterinarian there named her Tokitae, but the Miami Seaquarium’s owners, in an effort to hide where she came from as public outrage of orca captures heightened, eventually called her Lolita to be “more Miami.” Spanish in origin, Lolita means “pains” or “sorrows,” something the orca endured for the rest of her life.

Tokitae arrived at the Miami Seaquarium in September 1970, a month after her initial capture. Unbeknownst to Miami Seaquarium, which initially separated the two orcas, they were both Southern Resident orcas and would call to each other across the park grounds.

Eventually, Hugo and Tokitae were kept in the Whale Bowl together, forced to perform in a tank that was barely deeper than their bodies were long. Neither orca could dive deep and swim as they would in the wild with their pod. The USDA failed to enforce the Animal Welfare Act in regards to the size of the tank, which requires a minimum horizontal dimension of at least 48 feet wide in both directions.

On March 4, 1980, Hugo suffered a brain aneurysm, likely due to repeatedly bashing his head against the bars and walls in his tank. He died at just 15 years old, leaving Tokitae alone in her tank. She would never see another orca again.

In 1995, Howard Garrett from the Orca Network launched a campaign to return Tokitae to her native waters after the 1993 hit movie Free Willy stirred public outcry for the release of Keiko, who starred in the film. Because of the success of Keiko’s reintegration into the wild in 1996, advocates believed Tokitae had a chance at a similar rehabilitation.

Unfortunately, the CEO of the Miami Seaquarium denied requests from state officials to purchase Tokitae to move her to an open sea pen. She continued to perform in the Whale Bowl for decades, eventually having different species of dolphin placed in her tank (some of whom she is believed to have killed).

The Lummi Nation, the third-largest Native American tribe in Washington State, began its work to bring Tokitae home in 2018, stating they had a sacred obligation to bring her back to the Salish Sea. The Lummi Nation renamed her Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, meaning “our relations below the waves,” and partnered with the Whale Sanctuary Project and Earth Law Center to create a legal and logistical plan so that she could eventually feel the currents of the ocean and hear the calls of her pod members again.

In March 2022, after many scathing USDA inspection reports found that Tokitae was fed rotting fish and forced to perform dangerous tricks, her performances finally ended. The USDA granted The Dolphin Company ownership of the Miami Seaquarium, with a license that did not permit Tokitae to perform shows for entertainment.

One year later, the Miami Seaquarium announced it would return Tokitae to an ocean sanctuary in Washington, but the announcement came too late. Tokitae died fewer than five months later on August 18, 2023 around 4PM EST. She was one of the oldest orcas held in captivity and the last captive Southern Resident orca, dying at approximately 57 years old.

According to the Miami Seaquarium and a necropsy performed by the University of Georgia, Tokitae died from “progression of multiple chronic conditions including renal disease and pneumonia.” What the Miami Seaquarium failed to disclose immediately at the time her death was announced was that she had undergone a medical procedure the morning of her death and was unable to stabilize afterwards.

After her necropsy, her body was cremated and sent back to the Lummi Nation. They held a private ceremony and spread her ashes in the Salish Sea, returning the orca to her home as they promised.

World Animal Protection urges everyone who loves orcas and was moved by Tokitae’s story to never visit amusement parks where wild animals are kept captive and forced to perform for entertainment. Protect marine animals further by supporting the SWIMS Act, which would phase out the exploitation of orcas, beluga whales, pilot whales, and false killer whales by making it illegal to capture and breed these animals for public display.