MIAMI — Lolita may have retired as Miami Seaquarium’s star attraction, but the 56-year-old killer whale still performs a daily routine of waves, kisses and other tricks to mostly empty stands.
While the crowds are gone, trainers still lead Lolita through “mock shows” with an audience of park employees and the occasional VIP. Human interaction remains a key part of her routine, said Kristen McMahon-Van Oss, curator of animal training at the park on Miami’s Virginia Key.
“She has an exceptional training team that works with her every day,” she said “They have a very strong relationship with her.”
Lolita was Miami Seaquarium’s star attraction for decades, until the new owners agreed to retire the orca from performing for public crowds after pressure from animal rights groups that claimed the captive killer whale was subject to inhumane conditions in a tank far too small for a creature that should be swimming in oceans.
The performances continue, but with a drastically smaller audience of park employees. McMahon-Van Oss said it’s helpful to have some people in the stands when the tricks begin.
“She has a really great energy when the show is getting ready to start,” she said.
“We do make sure that Toki’s day is very similar to what she had in the past,” she said, using Lolita’s other name. “We do mock shows with her still. That’s part of her routine that she finds very positive.”
The quiet but active daily life of the orca captures the new reality at the Miami Seaquarium, which is facing unprecedented political pressure to improve conditions for its former star performer. The recently purchased for-profit park operates under a lease with Miami-Dade County.
For years, Lolita drew crowds who cheered her jumps, flips and hoisting of trainers out of the water during a daily performance for hundreds of people in the aquatic amphitheater off Biscayne Bay. Now she’s most often called Tokitae or Toki (TOW-kee), the orca’s original name after being captured in Puget Sound five decades ago.
Animal activists claim Lolita’s life as a performing mammal in a tank amounts to animal cruelty and have pushed the Seaquarium to send the whale to more humane surroundings. The Dolphin Company, which recently purchased the park, announced earlier this month the orca would no longer give public shows.
At a news conference Wednesday with Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the company announced another plan to address demands that Lolita be freed from the Seaquarium.
The Dolphin Company said it would allow an independent panel to oversee a third-party veterinarian’s examination to determine the killer whale’s health and then produce a public report.
“It is for us a new beginning,” said Renato Lenzi, chief operating officer for the Dolphin Company, a Mexican firm with dolphin parks around the world. “We’re extremely excited to bring a new wave of transparency.”
Levine Cava and the commissioner whose district includes the Seaquarium, Raquel Regalado, pressured the Dolphin Company to agree to more county oversight and transparency on Lolita’s condition in exchange for Miami-Dade approving the lease transfer, which commissioners passed in October.
Details of the new panel weren’t provided Wednesday, and both sides said an agreement with Miami-Dade about the independent panel hadn’t been finalized.
Company representatives also declined to say whether a vet will be asked to determine Lolita’s ability to survive relocation. “This is a step-by-step process,” said Travis Burke, director of North America parks for the Dolphin Company. “Step One is to confirm the health of Toki at the Miami Seaquarium.”
In a statement after the news conference, the animal rights group PETA called for the orca to be moved to a sanctuary “where she could at last know peace and freedom from her tiny concrete cell.”
The whale’s health is a central question for deciding whether Lolita can be moved to a different location or should stay at the Seaquarium.
“We have a tremendous opportunity to work together and take steps one at a time to figure out what should happen next,” said Charles Vinick of the Whale Sanctuary Project, which is developing a 100-acre inlet in Nova Scotia where whales can live after release from captivity.
Levine Cava, who has previously raised the possibility of Lolita being moved, said Wednesday that health considerations could take relocation off the table.
“Certainly, you don’t transport a sick animal,” she said. “We’re just taking it one step at a time. It is up to the owners.”
For now, the Seaquarium’s first big concession is to allow Lolita to perform for a smaller gathering.
Daily routines include the same tricks for fish treats, often with park employees in the stands to watch.
Regalado posted a video on Twitter on March 17 showing her leaning over Lolita’s tank with a trainer as the orca made what sounded like a deep growl and a high-pitched chirp. “She’s got a variety of vocalizations that are really fun,” the trainer said on the video.
“We saw her do some jumps and play with the ball,” Regalado said Wednesday after the news conference. “She was blowing kisses. And I blew kisses back at her. It’s super cute.”
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