Lolita swims alone in her too-small tank under the Florida sun.

Cruel Captivity

There is a plan to retire Lolita to a sea pen near where she was captured off the coast of Washington State. She was taken from her family on August 8,1970 and she has been held since then at the Miami Seaquarium . After 50 years in captivity, she deserves to feel her home waters again and become reacquainted with her family ( www.orcanetwork.org) . It is hoped that her mother - Ocean Sun - is still alive and may be with Tokitae (her original name) in her home waters again.
Lolita lives in the smallest whale tank in North America. She cannot even dive because she is 22 ft. long and her tank is just 20 ft. deep. Her tank is ILLEGAL according to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s own regulations.
She has no other orca for companionship which is a very cruel fate for one of the world’s most intelligent and social creatures. She also has no shade from the intense Florida sun.
By raising awareness, we hope one day Tokitae will see her home waters again.

Petition: https://www.change.org/p/support-lolita-s-retirement (paste in browser)
Released From Captivity, Loggerhead Turtle
Travels Halfway Around the World

A leatherback turtle was released on December 16, 2017 from Twin Oceans aquarium in South Africa after being hatched in Australia many years ago. She went along the west coast of Africa to Namibia and Angola where she spent some time. She than turned around, went east past Cape Town and headed for Australia. Scientists began tracking her journey from Cape Town two years ago. They believe she may have wanted to return to her original hatching site in Pilbara, Australia to breed and nest.
Twin Oceans aquarium wrote on Twitter, "She has swum an incredible 35,400 km in the two years since her release - that's an amazing 48 km per day (no rests)."
Sabrina Fossette, a research scientist from Washington's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, said it was very exciting. "This turtle spent 20 years in captivity and still, you put her in the water and she suddenly remembers she probably has something to do on the other side of the ocean and just starts crossing it," Dr Fossette said.

Notes:
A kilometer is equal to about 0.62 of a mile, and a mile is equal to about 1.61 kilometers.

All loggerhead turtles are hermaphrodites.
gray whale
California Gray Whale
Successfully Removed From Net

A California gray whale is swimming freely after rescuers spent seven hours recently untangling him from a discarded fishing net off the Orange County CA coast. The young whale was spotted covered in nearly 50 feet of fishing wire. Rescue crews suspected it had been dragging the nylon netting, which was filled with dead sea animals, for nearly a week. There was one sea lion and several sharks among the sea life trapped by the net.
Dave Anderson, who works with Dolphin Safari, and was part of the weekend’s efforts, got permission from the National Marine Fisheries Services to attach a buoy to the mammal. This was done in order to monitor it overnight as a team of wildlife experts assembled for a rescue attempt the following morning.
He was named “Bart” after one of the boaters, who stayed with the whale overnight as it drifted up the coast. It was difficult to cut through the net without hurting the whale.
Through their efforts, at last, a line snapped and the whale dived, pulling buoys with it. “Those buoys just went under the water all of a sudden,” Anderson said, “and when they went under the water, I mean, it was like a scene from "Jaws.” When the whale came back up, he was free.


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