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)

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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.

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 plan in place before she died 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.

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