Lolita (also known as Tokitae) is the last surviving orca of the infamous Penn Cove captures of 1970. After capture, she was shipped to Miami Seaquarium where she still remains to this day.
Keeping orcas, dolphins and other cetaceans in captivity is cruel. Depriving them of the vast open spaces and social bonds that they would normally have in the wild, and confining them to small, concrete tanks to perform tricks for dead fish is highly unethical for these complex marine mammals. No matter how sophisticated the enclosure, no man made facility can ever hope to replicate the wild world of dolphins and whales. You can help Lolita and other captive dolphins and whales with the following action steps!
1. Take the Pledge NOT to Buy a Ticket
Take the Pledge NOT to Buy a Ticket To a Dolphin Show and invite your friends and family to pledge, too!
2. Know the Issues and Spread Awareness
Miami Seaquarium has a long history of dolphin and whale captivity. Use the resources below to learn more about Lolita, the park’s history of captivity and more:
3. Support Our Work
Make a Tax Deductible Donation to Support our International Campaigns
Your support is critical to work to end the exploitation of dolphins all over the world, and our dolphin sanctuary project. If your employer has a matching gifts program, your donation could be doubled or even tripled!
4. Get Involved
Help Make Your Community Free of Captive Cetacean Facilities
Explore our activism guides to meeting with legislators, public demonstrations and other community action to help end cetacean captivity in your area.
5. Contact the Authorities
Lolita has spent over 51 years at the Miami Seaquarium in an undersized tank with no shade to protect her from direct sunlight and no protection from the weather, including hurricanes. Her exposure to the sun and weather violates Section 3.103(3)(b) of the Animal Welfare Act. Her tank is also 13 feet shorter than what is required by the Animal Welfare Act (Section 3.104).
Please contact each agency below and strongly request that action be taken to ensure public safety at the Miami Seaquarium. Ask why Dade County Building and Zoning and Fire Marshal are allowing the Seaquarium to “slide by,” endangering the lives of paying customers.
Consumer Complaints
Department of Business and Professional Regulation
1940 Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0782
Phone: (850) 487-1395
Email: http://www.myfloridalicense.com/contactus/
www.myflorida.com/dbpr
State Fire Marshal
200 E. Gaines Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0342
Ph. (850) 413-3089
email: [email protected]
Office of the Attorney General
State of Florida
PL-01 The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050
Phone: (850) 414-3300
Write to the agencies below and ask why they continually allow Miami Seaquarium to operate
when it is sub-standard to their own laws, and request that captive marine mammals at the facility be retired.
USDA, APHIS Animal Care
Write to APHIS (The Animal & Plant Inspection Service) and the USDA and ask them to enforce the Animal Welfare Act on behalf of Lolita. APHIS oversees the enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act and the USDA oversees APHIS.
When you write to them here are some points to mention:
Lolita has spent over 50 years at the Miami Seaquarium in an undersized tank with no shade to protect her from direct sunlight and no protection from the weather, including hurricanes. Her exposure to the sun and weather violates Section 3.103(3)(b) of the Animal Welfare Act.
Lolita’s tank is also 13 feet shorter than what is required by the Animal Welfare Act (Section 3.104). Lolita is 22 feet long and weighs over 7,000 pounds. Her tank is way too small for an orca of her size.
Send your letters or email to:
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 200-A
Washington, DC 20250
[email protected]
Eastern Regional Director
USDA—APHIS Animal Care
920 Main Campus Drive, Suite 200
Raleigh, NC 27606
[email protected]
Palace Entertainment (Operators of Miami Seaquarium)
Miami Seaquarium is operated by Palace Entertainment, which is owned by Parques Reunidos. They need to hear from you! You can write a letter and send it to Palace Entertainment to tell them you want to see Lolita retired to her home waters of Washington State.
You can mail your letters to this address:
Palace Entertainment Corporate Headquarters
4800 Kennywood Blvd.
West Mifflin, PA 15122
National Marine Fisheries Service
Call or write to National Marine Fisheries Service and request a current Marine Mammal Inventory Report (MMIR) for the Miami Seaquarium.
Office of Protected Resources
1315 East-West Highway, 13th Floor
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Phone: (301) 427-8400
One of the most important things you can do is not support any of the other Palace Entertainment/Parques Reunidos theme parks found around the world.
Parks Owned by this Global Corporation
Amusement and theme parks:
Belantis
Bobbejaanland
Castle Park
Dutch Wonderland
Idlewild
Kennywood
Lake Compounce
Mirabilandia
Motiongate Dubai
Movie Park Germany
Parque de Atracciones de Madrid
Parque Warner Madrid
Slagharen
Story Land
Tusenfryd
Zoo Parks
Blackpool Zoo
Faunia
Selwo Aventura
Zoo Aquarium de Madrid
Marine life parks:
Aquarium of the Lakes
Marineland
Miami Seaquarium
Sea Life Park
Selwo Marina
Water parks:
Aquopolis
Bo Sommarland
Noah’s Ark
Raging Waters
Sandcastle
Splish Splash
Tropical Islands
Water Country
Wet’n’Wild Emerald Pointe
Wet’n’Wild Sydney
Let's Protect Dolphins Together!
Measurable progress for dolphins has been made thanks to people like you taking action and saying NO to the dolphin show. Check out the list of closed facilities and the list of places that now protect dolphins from captivity. Take a deeper dive into defending dolphins by exploring our campaigns!
