Today at 12noon PST in downtown Seattle, and in 40+ other locations worldwide, protestors gathered to urge Miami's Seaquarium to cooperate with a plan to release Lolita the orca back into the wild.

In 1970 a capture team using speedboats, airplanes and explosives forced the entire Southern Resident  orca community (L-Pod) into a narrow cove, where they corralled all 110 or so  orcas. They chose the young ones to ship to marine parks around the  world, and one was delivered to the Miami Seaquarium. She was named "Lolita." Against all odds  she has survived 40 years in a tiny tank that is illegal by the  letter of the Animal Welfare Act.

Tiffany Young said, "The tank Lolita is held captive in is abusively small. It is the equivalent of a human being being forced to live in a bath tub for nearly 40 years. Hasn't Lolita given enough of her life to entertainment? The time has come to return her to her home."

Interestingly, Lolita's L-Pod family showed up near her original capture site last night as if on cue, and were swimming in and around kayaking protestors near Lime Kiln State Park, WA.

Detractors say the feasibility of returning Lolita to her home waters is not clear, but the Orca Network and several experienced scientists are confident it can be done. They believe greed is the real reason Seaquarium doesn't want to see Lolita released. The Orca Network's plan to re-integrate Lolita into the wild is outlined in detail on their website: http://www.orcanetwork.org/captivity/culture.html

To learn more about the plan to return Lolita to her family, visit http://www.orcanetwork.org or http://www.savelolita.com.