A captive orca may soon be going home because of a posh rescue mission involving a billionaire, a cargo plane, and a watery life support system.
Tokitae, also generally known as Toki or Lolita, is expected to be released from her tiny enclosure within the Miami Seaquarium. But getting the orca back to a bay near Seattle shall be no easy task. She’ll must be flown 2,700 miles across the US, possibly in a C-130 Hercules cargo plane.
“She’s healthy, I’ve got the cash, let’s move her,’ Jim Irsay, the rich owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts, who’s funding the rescue, said recently.
Activists have led the charge to send Tokitae back to the wild. The 21-foot orca currently lives in one among the world’s smallest pens for “killer whales,” an 80×35 foot pool. Friends of Toki, a bunch dedicated to the orca’s welfare, said on its website that Toki was reported to be in ailing health, and that reports issued in 2021 and early 2022 suggested she was gravely ailing.
“Of their natural homes, orcas and other dolphins swim several dozen miles a day and dive to great depths below the surface of their native waters, animal rights group PETA said in a news release. “Holding them captive for our amusement is a type of speciesism—a human-supremacist worldview—and it must end.”
The orca shall be put in a glass tank on the Miami Seaquarium after which taken on a protracted journey. First, the tank shall be placed on a truck to Miami airport. From there, it would be loaded onto a big cargo plane, and Toki will fly along with her caretakers for two,700 miles to the Seattle Airport. Finally, she shall be driven to her recent home within the Salish Sea, where she shall be cared for during her transition back to the wild.
If Toki does fly on a C-130, also generally known as the Hercules, she’s going to accomplish that on an iconic aircraft. The C-130 is a four-engine military transport aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin. It was first introduced within the Fifties and has turn into one among the world’s most generally used military transport planes.
The flexibility of the Hercules to operate from short and unimproved runways, combined with its large payload capability and endurance, makes it a reliable selection for rescue and humanitarian missions. A C-130 was utilized in the recent search for survivors of the underwater mission to The Titanic.