Captive Puget Sound orca Tokitae dies at Miami Seaquarium

MIAMI, Florida — Tragic news from the Miami Seaquarium -- Tokitae the orca has died.

According to the Seaquarium, Tokitae “started exhibiting serious signs of discomfort” on Wednesday. Two days later, she died from what their team is reporting was a renal condition.

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Tokitae the orca (Andy Blackledge, Flickr Creative Commons)

Also known as Lolita by the Seaquarium, the orca was captured from the L-pod in the Puget Sound in 1970. It was announced in March that she would be released back into her home waters.

“So many of us are grieving this loss of Tokitae. She was a beautiful, beautiful Orca that never deserved the life she got,” said Jenny Atkinson, the Whale Museum’s Executive Director.

The process of moving an 8,000-pound orca across the country was going to be a complicated one, particularly since reintroducing captive whales into the wild has proven to be difficult in the past. The original plan was to eventually release Tokitae into a netted sanctuary space spanning the size of roughly two football fields. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay had previously pledged $20 million to pay for that process.

Tokitae was around 57 years old. She spent roughly 53 years in captivity.

“It was a complete shock for us at Lummi Nation,” said Seaquarium Chairman Tony Hillaire. “We were aware that she was coming home. we were not aware her health was declining at any moment, so it was a huge shock to all of us.”

An orca’s natural lifespan runs parallel to humans.

“Their life span is pretty similar to ours they can live up to 100 years. females go through menopause,” said Atkinson. “He wouldn’t have been able to contribute to the population as far as giving birth when she returned but emotionally it could have been really healing for the whales to be able to reconnect and have her as part of the community.”

One of the resident orcas still in the Sound waters, L-25 AKA Ocean Sun, is believed to be Tokitae’s mom. They were pictured together when Tokitae, just 4 years old at the time, was captured. Atkinson said they were heartbroken that reunion will now never happen. She also says, the day before Tokitae died, Ocean Sun and other pods were spotted.

The remaining resident orcas are still struggling to thrive, with the population dropping by 200 orcas since Tokitae’s capture.

“There’s a pile-on of threats that face them,” said Atkinson. “This is a salmon-eating population. all of the salmon runs in the PNW are extinct, endangered, or threatened, so you have an endangered whale that’s looking for an endangered fish.”

Even choices made while filling up a shopping cart can help the resident orcas thrive.

“More than 85% of their diet is in the summer months in Chinook Salmon. We love Chinook Salmon too but, we don’t need it to survive the day. We can absolutely make different choices and find fish that aren’t on the orcas’ menu. there are other types of salmon they don’t like as much. they would prefer to go to the big Chinook but maybe not a Sockeye, maybe not a pink. So, I’m not saying don’t eat salmon,” Atkinson said.

Chinook salmon is also labeled King salmon in stores.

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