4 August 31 - september 6, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | FREE AT LAST Lolita’s death concludes a disturbing chapter in the history of Miami’s Seaquarium. BY ALEX DELUCA AND IZZY KAPNICK O n August 18, as the sun set over Virginia Key, Lolita the orca’s body was harnessed and wrapped in a white shroud at Miami Seaquarium. A flock of birds flew over the remains of the 7,000-pound black-and-white whale while the park staff looked on mournfully. After more than five decades in captivity — and amid a headline-grabbing project to relo- cate her to an enclosure in her native Salish Sea — the beloved orca (also known as Tokitae or Toki) died last week at the estimated age of 57. Her body was loaded onto a truck to be transported to the University of Georgia for a necropsy to determine the cause of death, ini- tially attributed to kidney dysfunction. In the wake of her death, the state of her cramped and crumbling tank, where she had been confined since 1970, has prompted questions about whether her living condi- tions were to blame for her failing health. A former Seaquarium veterinarian, Jenna Wal- lace, tells New Times that persistent water quality issues and a reduction in Lolita’s diet by more than 25 percent likely affected her initial deterioration. A debilitating chronic infection left Lolita in a fragile state over the past two years, by all accounts. Though the Seaquarium and its vets at times suggested the whale was on the mend, health reports reviewed by New Times show that in the months before Lolita per- ished, she was still struggling and receiving high doses of antibiotics while battling infec- tious disease, the origins of which doctors had trouble pinpointing. Miami Seaquarium beamed about Lolita’s health three days before she died, saying she was “very stable.” While the probe into what killed Lolita 53 years into her captivity is ongoing, federal in- spection data, her health reports, and inter- views with the former Seaquarium veterinarian make it clear that the whale was living in an antiquated, deteriorating tank with an outdated water filtration system, which the park’s new owner, Dolphin Co., rushed to up- date after taking over the venue in 2022. Tank Crumbling Lolita’s living conditions fell under public scrutiny when a 2021 report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) came to light, painting a dire picture of the whale’s care under Miami Seaquarium’s pre- vious owner, Palace Entertainment: tank dis- repair, foul fish food, and major problems with water quality. The feds noted that the facility failed to monitor and maintain the chlorine levels in Lolita’s pool. The balance was delicate — too much chlorine could cause chemical injury, while not enough could allow harmful patho- gens to flourish in the small tank. The tank had a recirculating water system, where dis- infectants were essential to remove fecal con- taminants and pathogens. The report said that Lolita displayed signs of potential chlorine injury around her eyes in the spring of 2021, noting that the whale tank’s water processing system had recently experi- enced a pump breakdown. Wallace, a veter- inarian who worked at Miami Seaquarium at the time, tells New Times that the health effects of the outdated water- treatment system were exacerbated by the Seaquarium’s move to reduce the whale’s diet to roughly 120 pounds daily. Wallace says that solid food intake affects orcas’ hy- dration, as the whales are thought to absorb water through food digestion. “Lolita was always on a 165-pound-a-day diet. I believe her veterinary team reduced her to such a low diet that she was underfed and dehydrated chronically,” Wallace says. According to the report, the federal in- spection reflected Wallace’s concerns about the park reducing the whale’s feeding volume and its decision to continue giving her an al- legedly foul shipment of fish — all without approval from the veterinarian who had been treating her since 1997. “The decisions to decrease Toki’s base and continue to feed poor quality capelin to park animals were...made without the [attending veterinarian’s] approval,” the report reads. The longtime vet, Magdalena Rodriguez, was fired in June 2021 after alleged fallout from her relaying her safety concerns about Lolita and other marine mammals to the USDA. Wallace says she was pushed out of her job at the Seaquarium that summer after supporting the USDA investigation. In response to the backlash over the find- ings, the park said it stood by the quality of its animal care and had a track record of success- ful inspections. “Our veterinarians and ani- mal care specialists are fully dedicated to delivering the best care to all of our animals,” Miami Seaquarium said. The whale auditorium, which dates back to 1970, was crumbling as the staff drama un- folded. Chunks of deteriorating paint flaked off into Lolita’s tank, and “a section of pool laminate on one side of the slide-out area on the island was missing, revealing the cement underneath,” the USDA reported. Building inspectors from Miami-Dade County issued an unsafe-structure notice for the stadium in August 2021 and shut down public access to the whale venue, noting that there was structural damage to a joist, ac- companied by corrosion around beams sup- porting the grandstands. At a subsequent county meeting, a building department board member, Marco Gorrin, was at a loss, asking “how the structure was allowed to deteriorate to this extent,” according to the board minutes. A few months after the USDA’s findings were made public, Lolita’s health collapsed, according to a veterinary assessment. Ailing Whale Eduardo Albor’s Dolphin Co., an amusement company with marine parks spread across eight countries, announced in August 2021 that it was acquiring Miami Seaquarium from Palace Entertainment. It took over operations of the Seaquarium in March 2022 and offi- cially retired Lolita from public performance while her health was failing and the whale stadium was under review by the Miami- Dade County unsafe-structures board. James McBain, a retired veterinarian brought in by the Seaquarium to monitor Lol- ita, said that the whale’s caretakers were strug- gling to find the source of her chronic infection. “Due to size, killer whales present diag- nostic challenges that are not an issue with smaller species. What we now know is that her infection was well established and will likely require prolonged therapy,” the doctor wrote in June 2022. Monthly health reports issued by McBain call into question whether Lolita ever truly recovered. The infection persisted through- out 2022, and she had ups and downs, some- times losing her appetite, appearing listless, and teetering on the verge of fatal illness. She took a turn for the worse in September 2022 but seemed to recover after adding a new an- tibiotic to her regimen. As Lolita clung to life, Dolphin Co. under- took a project to upgrade the outdated water filtration system in her tank by changing the filter media and replacing the chlorination sys- tem with ozone, another disinfectant, Lolita, AKA Tokitae, had been in captivity since she was captured as a calf in Puget Sound in 1970. Photo by Leonardo DaSilva/Flickr | METRO | “I BELIEVE HER VETERINARY TEAM REDUCED HER TO SUCH A LOW DIET THAT SHE WAS UNDERFED.” >> p6
