A captive orca named Lolita is too ill to perform for paying visitors to the Miami Seaquarium this week – but the elderly orca needs more than a few days off.
Lolita is 42 and the life expectancy for captive orcas is typically 25 years or less.
Would we expect a human who lived nearly twice their life expectancy to perform for crowds?
The capture and training of orcas for entertainment at aquariums has been defended as educational, but critics say there is very little education, and a clear emphasis on having them do tricks to please paying crowds, like the exploitation of circus animals.
An organized effort to rescue Lolita from captivity called SaveLolita has been established.
She was captured from waters off the coast of Washington state several decades ago, along with a number of other orcas. She is the last remaining survivor of that group.
Her tank has been said for decades to be far too small. It is only 21 feet deep, yet she is 21 feet long.
One orca advocate described Lolita’s situation:
“She has been living in an illegal tank at the Seaquarium for the last 39 years, and has taken a backseat to the newly developed swim-with-the-dolphins program. This backseat has raised controversy as to why she shouldn’t be retired, because the Seaquarium won’t build her a bigger tank. Surrounding the controversy with the rising number of orca attacks at Sea World, she could be the first of a new generation of orcas being retired back to their natural habitat.”
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