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A billionaire philanthropist is backing a $20 million plan to launch Tokitae the orca from her small enclosure within the Miami Seaquarium.

The plan would contain loading the 8,000-pound killer whale on a aircraft, flying her throughout the US, and releasing her in a bay close to Seattle.

“She’s wholesome, I’ve bought the cash, let’s transfer her,” Indianapolis Colts CEO Jim Irsay informed “The Pat McAfee Present” final month.

Buddies of Toki, the activist group main the transfer with monetary backing from Irsay, informed Euronews that the animal might be moved inside 18 to 24 months.

Killer whale on a aircraft

The plan, which is in collaboration with the proprietor of the Miami Seaquarium, The Dolphin Firm, would see the 21-foot-long killer whale loaded onto a harness and enclosed in a glass tank on the Miami Seaquarium, in line with The Occasions of London.

That tank can be loaded onto a truck to the Miami airport, the place it might be transferred onto a big cargo aircraft akin to a C-130 Hercules, the newspaper stated.

The orca would then be flown along with her carers throughout the US on a 2,700-mile journey to the Seattle Airport, the place Tokitae can be taken by truck to the Salish Sea, per the Occasions.

The report stated that greater than $500,000 had already been spent on Tokitae’s “life help programs” for the journey, together with filters for her pool water.

Tokitae, who shouldn’t be sturdy sufficient to swim lengthy distances or hunt on her personal, can be transferred to a 15-acre netted space close to the San Juan islands.

^{Tokitae has been residing on the planet’s smallest orca enclosure. File picture/Miami Herald/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photographs through BI}

Tokitae has been residing on the planet’s smallest orca enclosure

Tokitae, also referred to as Lolita, has been performing for 53 years. She was captured from Penn Cove, Washington, when she was 4.

The killer whale has been residing on the planet’s smallest orca tank, which measures 80 ft by 35 ft. She’s the second oldest orca residing in captivity.

In response to a 2022 report, Tokitae’s well being was quickly declining. Her well being has since improved, thanks partly to efforts to updates to her residing circumstances. Within the midst of activist strain, notably from the Lummi Nation, an indigenous group that considers her a member of the family and calls her Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, the Miami Seaquarium agreed to cease the orca’s dwell reveals final yr.

Orcas are intensely social animals that kind sturdy bonds with their moms. The hope is that Tokitae might be reunited along with her mom, who’s considered alive and swimming close to the place the netted enclosure can be.

Lii, a Pacific white-sided dolphin who has been sharing Tokitae’s enclosure within the Miami Seaquarium, is perhaps relocated with Tokitae to maintain her firm.