National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Lolita Protected Under Endangered Species Act: NOAA

Ten years after she was excluded from the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Lolita, the lone orca at Miami Seaquarium, will be granted the same endangered status as the rest of her family in the wild, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Wednesday.

The move comes after years of protests from groups like PETA, Orca Network, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and others who opposed the conditions in which Lolita was kept.

Captured when she was between four and six years old from the waters of the Puget Sound in 1970, Lolita has been performing at Miami Seaquarium for more than four decades.

Even with her classification, officials with the seaquarium say Lolita will not be released into the wild.

"Regardless of what happens with the listing, she's not going to be released," Robert Rose, Miami Seaquarium curator told NBC 6 in a January 28 interview, "We're not going to sell her. We're not going to release her. Period. End of story."

Activists from PETA and ALDF claim that Lolita should be returned to the wild, saying that orcas typically spend their entire lives with their mothers, and that Lolita recognized her pod's calls decades after being captured, and her mother, estimated to be about 86 years old, is still thriving.

"This orca has been trapped for decades in the tiniest orca tank in North America and, for the past 10 years, deprived of the protection from harm and harassment offered by the Endangered Species Act," says general counsel to PETA Jeffrey Kerr in a press release. "Now that this protection is rightfully hers, PETA will continue to push for her release into the sea, where she belongs."

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