lolitasvoice - Tumblr blog

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Thank you for my unique and thoughtful gifts. I love them. You know me so well, pip @rhtvc (at Dillon Beach, California)

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I love the contrast of this picture. We're off to the daily rat race, and up in the sky is this timeless view on the Sun's light breaking the dawn. I get a little lost in it.

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Ric O’Barry. :)

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and here we see MSQ yet again defying the no-waterwork fine issued by OSHA.

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44 years since Lolita last saw her family.

44 years since Lolita last felt the ocean.

44 years since the Penn Cove roundup.

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Gif Request: Lolita (Tokitae) by panic-at-the-goldfish

For her 44th anniversary in captivity… it’s a sad anniversary and we’ll try everything so she can spend her next one in a seapen. We love you girl, hang in there! <3

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girls protesting outside of SeaWorld

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Today, on World Ranger Day, we honor the men and women who risk their lives to protect great apes and other endangered wildlife around the world. We are deeply grateful for your dedication and sacrifice. (Image courtesy of Virunga National Park.)

source 

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Express yourself.

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Meet Hugo. His story begins in Vaughn Bay, 1968 in February. Around his capture time, he was about 4-6 years old. He was to be sold to the Miami Seaquarium. As soon as he was bought, he was loaded into a plane and ready to be shipped to the Miami Seaquarium. It took him 85 days to arrive. At that time, he was 13 feet and 1,800 pounds. He was first placed in a manatee pool which was named the celebrity pool. Hugo was way to big for this pool. His head would stick out of the water and his tail would curl under. Soon later, Lolita was bought for $6,000. Her tank was made and she was kept alone, but only hundreds of yards away from Hugo’s tank. The two were kept away because the unperienced trainers believed they would fight if brought together. The two orcas called to each and every night. It was decided to put the two of them together. They did fight at first but as time progressed, it died down. But it caused Hugo to become aggressive towards his trainers. Hugo and Lolita mated several times and this came to be a joy for the Miami Seaquarium. No calf was successful. One calf was a stillborn. Hugo died in March of 1980. This was due to the fact he had a brain aneurysm. Hugo had a history of repeatedly smashing his head against the walls. He even broke the viewing glass one time, cutting his nose, badly. The nose had to be stitched up. After he died, his body was discarded at the Miami local dump. There is no placard there for people to remember him. In fact, the Miami Seaquarium wants to forget that he even existed. Please, don’t support these kind of places. Captivity Kills Source let_toki_go_free.m.webs.com Sign a petition to help the lone survivor of the wretched place. A small tank is no place for an Apex predator.

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Quote from R. M. Dolgin.

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Lolita owne Art Hertz breaks his silence in revealing interview with KOMO 4 News Investigative Reporter Jeff Burnside

In a rare interview, [Hertz] says he’s misunderstood and mischaracterized by critics, “because they have their minds made up, by people who are influencing them with, again, mischaracterizations of what I’m trying to do and what they think I’m trying to do.”  Hertz says the angry and hateful things said about him in letters and online posts around the world hurts.  Dude, whatever the hell you’re trying to do involves this for 40+ years: I literally do not care if you saved 500 orphaned kittens from a house fire with your bare hands while throwing alms to the poor, you are profiting and have been profiting from the above and have refused basically all requests regarding this animal. (even 100% reasonable and completely unobtrusive ones, like the acoustic research which Balcomb offered you $250,000 for the chance to do) 

Enjoy your hurt feelings, I hope you continue to have them long after Tokitae dies and until you recognise the gravity of your poor decisions. And I hope they never end if the sale of the park lands Toki at Seaworld or whatever. “Family” my ass, if you don’t secure the (relative) well-being of that animal before ownership changes hands.

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If you don’t think petitions work, just know that somebody made a petition asking Taco Bell to stop promoting SeaWorld (and got 20,000 signatures!) and Taco Bell just announced that they are ending their SeaWorld partnership in September.

Petitions work.

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Lolita has been in captivity for 44 years. She deserves a real home. 

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2013-0056-1841

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URGENT: The Navy’s proposed activities are expected to kill hundreds of thousands marine mammals species. Help us tell them to rescind their training—we only have 3 days left!

Sign here.

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I just love this blog. My heart has totally been stolen by Lolita and I am praying with every fiber of my being that she gets out of that crappy little pool and is able to be back in the ocean where she belongs.

Thank you! Me too. It kills me that she's in there. I just know in my heart it won't be forever though. Did you post a comment in the regulations.gov site about her release?

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via Orca Network: January 24 NOAA Fisheries proposed a rule to grant Lolita equal status with her family as a member of an endangered species, pending a 2-month comment period before it is made final. Now our challenge is to persuade NOAA Fisheries to overcome the beliefs promulgated to serve their own interests by the combined forces of the entire captive orca industry over the past four decades that captive orcas can never be returned to their native waters because it could kill them or could harm their wild conspecifics (family). So we are asking all supporters of our proposal for Lolita’s retirement to submit comments to NOAA Fisheries along these lines: The comment period - to help persuade NOAA Fisheries to not only follow through and grant Lolita’s inclusion as a member of her family, but to allow her to return to her home - began January 27. You can make your comments at http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2013-0056-1841. Even if/when she is finally determined to be a member of her family under the ESA, if NOAA Fisheries believes her health or her family’s health could be harmed by her return to her native waters they don’t have to allow her to be retired. We have drafted some basic points to make here to clarify those issues: 3 essential points to make: 1. There is no significant risk to Lolita in any stage of Orca Network’s proposal for Lolita’s retirement in her native waters. a. Transport of orcas according to established protocols is commonly done and has never resulted in serious health issues; b. Immersion of captive marine mammals in their native waters is described as therapeutic in veterinary literature; c. The initial immersion is likely to be followed by exploration of the seapen environs, and heightened energy and metabolic strength, as demonstrated by Keiko upon immersion in Icelandic waters; d. Her ability to catch and eat wild fish is likely to begin to resume in a matter of weeks or months, again as demonstrated by Keiko. 2. A thorough examination will be conducted by a team of veterinarians and pathologists prior to transport to detect any potential communicable diseases. Assuming there are not, there will be no significant risk to any members of the Southern Resident Community as a result of Lolita’s return to her native waters. Conclusion: there is no harm to Lolita or her family involved in returning her to her home waters. 3. Remaining in captivity will result in continuing mental and physical stresses and health issues. a. Abundant evidence, including peer-reviewed scientific publications, indicate that captivity increases mortality rates for orcas; b. Due to her loneliness from living without the companionship of another orca for over three decades, and due to her exposure to the midday Miami sun, and due to the extremely small size of the tank that has been her only environs for over four decades, she is continually suffering as long as she remains in captivity; c. Despite Lolita’s unlikely good health at over 45 years of age, she is still subject to the adverse effects of captivity on her emotional, mental and physical health. Conclusion: remaining in captivity DOES constitute real harm to Lolita, and given her relatively good health notwithstanding her conditions, she is an excellent candidate for return to her native waters for retirement under human care in a sea pen, and potentially for eventual full release.