The Lummi hope to bring Lolita the orca home

Lolita the orca was captured near Puget Sound in 1970 and transported to Miami's Seaquarium where she has been an exhibit ever since. Earlier this year members of the Lummi tribe believe that Lolita, who is also known as Tokitae, sent them "a message" asking them to bring her home. For the three months, six craftsmen of the Native American Lummi tribe sculpted a 175-year-old western red cedar tree into the likeness of the orca. This week they arrived at the Sequarium with their 16 foot totem pole.

The Miami New Times reports Kurt Russo, a friend of the tribe who helped transport the totem pole across the country from Washington state, explaining that “The blackfish in Lummi [are called] qwe lhol mechen, meaning ‘the people that live under the water'. In Lummi cosmology, they were and are people and family.”

Russo, like many of his Lummi friends, believes the totem pole's arrival in Miami will help advocate for the orca's return to Washington. In 1970, Lolita was captured near Puget Sound and has been on display at the marine park largely ever since.
"Her capture and her captivity is one chain of cruelty," Russo says. "She sings her family song, calling out in the night. Her mother is now the matriarch of the pod."
"It will be an inspired and inspiring experience for everyone, including Tokitae, who we've been assured takes comfort in our arrival," Russo adds.

Seaquarium staff have maintai that the orca will suffer if reintroduced back into the wild. But the Lummi haven’t given up on the dream of reuniting Tokitae with her pod in the Pacific Northwest. “The Lummi will not stop until she is returned to her family,” Russo says. “All they have to gain is the satisfaction of the end of her suffering.”

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An increase in the number of irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong

Some good news this week about the Irrawaddy dolphins of the Mekong River. A joint report from the Cambodian government and the World Wildlife Foundation tells how, following decades of seemingly irreversible decline, the population is increasing. They report the number of dolphins in the region has risen from 80 to 92 in the past two years—the first increase since scientists began keeping records more than twenty years ago. The first official census in 1997 estimated that there were 200 Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong, a figure that fell steadily due to bycatch and habitat loss. By 2015, only 80 dolphins remained. The recent census showed that more dolphins are surviving into adulthood, and there’s been a significant drop in overall deaths. Nine calves were born this year, raising the number of dolphins born in the past three years to 32. Seng Teak, Country Director of WWF Cambodia, said the census had positive implications for the Greater Mekong region, wher...

A blue whale spotted in Tasmanian waters - only the eighth sighting in six years

There have only been eight blue whale sightings in southeast Tasmanian waters in the last six years so the Marine Conservation Program was naturally a little bit excited this week.

The blue whale in the red sea

Huge Blue Whale Sighted in the Red Sea for the First Time | Smart News | Smithsonian : "On Tuesday morning, a fisherman off the coast of Eilat, Israel spotted something unexpected: a huge whale swimming along in the Red Sea. Experts were even more surprised to discover that the creature was a blue whale—marking the first time that the world’s largest mammal has been seen in the Red Sea, as Zafrir Rinat and Almog Ben Zikri report for Haaretz. Two days after it popped up in Israeli waters, Egypt’s environment ministry announced that the animal had also been sighted in the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba, according to Aham Online. The ministry revealed that the whale measures 24 meters (nearly 80 feet) long, and belongs to a subspecies known as the pygmy blue whale. Monitoring teams in the South Sinai and the Red Sea have been deployed to track the whale’s movements." 'via Blog this'

Whales and other cetaceans

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