Lolita is an orca

Orca

The killer whale , commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas...

 who has lived at the Miami Seaquarium

Miami Seaquarium

The Miami Seaquarium is a oceanarium located on the island of Virginia Key in Biscayne Bay, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States and is located near downtown Miami. It is the longest operating oceanarium in the United States. In addition to the marine mammals, the Miami Seaquarium also...

 for 40 years.

Early life

On August 8, 1970 in Puget Sound Lolita along with seven others were caught to be sold to marine parks and aquariums. Tokitae, as she was originally named, was purchased by Seaquarium veterinarian Dr. Jesse White for about $6,000. On arriving to the Seaquarium Lolita joined another Southern Resident Orca named Hugo who was captured some time before Lolita and had lived in the park two years before her arrival. At first they were housed apart so they would not fight but they were eventually put together. Tokitae was re-named Lolita “after the heroine in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel by The News.”
She and Hugo lived together in what is known as the Whale Bowl. Hugo and Lolita got along well with each other during the years they spent together but on the morning of March 4, 1980 staff arrived to find a lifeless Hugo. “We found her bumping up against Hugo’s body. It’s impossible to know what she was thinking. They were very protective of one another when one of them was sick. I’d just like to forget about that day.” recalls trainer Eimstad. Hugo had suffered a brain aneurism after being lethargic for several weeks. “We expected problems when Hugo died but Lolita preformed as usual the next day,” trainer Lou Roth recalls “Once in a while she would look for him, but she got over it.” Even though the pair had bred many times (once to the point of suspending shows) the two never produced any live offspring.

Controversy

While Lolita is literally the Seaquarium’s biggest star she has also attracted the facility attention from animal rights groups and anti-captivity activists. In 2008 Lolita was the subject of the documentary Lolita: Slave to Entertainment in which many anti-captivity activists, most notably Ric O'Barry

Ric O'Barry

Richard "Ric" O'Barry is an American first recognized in the 1960s for capturing and training the five dolphins that were used in the well-known TV series Flipper. O'Barry made a radical transition from training dolphins in captivity to assertively combating the captivity industry soon after...

(former Flipper trainer), argue against her current conditions and express a hope that she may be re-introduced to the wild. Protesters assert that the Seaquarium is treating Lolita cruelly.