MIAMI — The shows are over for Lolita the killer whale.
After five decades as iconic star at Miami Seaquarium, the 7,000-pound orca will no longer perform daring dives, splash spectators or serve as mascot for the marine park on Virginia Key, according to the federal agency that oversees animal attractions.
Lolita — the focus of a decades-long campaign by animal rights activists who have advocated to return the orca to the Pacific Ocean waters where she was captured in 1970 — has not been doing regular twice-daily shows for months, since the stadium where she lives in a 20-foot-deep tank was closed for repairs ordered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which cited numerous maintenance, water quality and animal welfare problems during an inspection of Seaquarium last summer.
