Welcome, we're the Lactivist people
on the shore of the Salish Sea.
These are the native waters
of quick thomachen orcas.
Members of the Lummi Nation and
others pray for the return of
someone they consider family.
A southern resident orca that
was captured from these waters
more than 50 years ago.
This is her home not in Miami.
The cement tank.
That's not where she belongs.
We ache for our relative.
So it was important today to gather
to send prayers to Skelly Chuck,
to nut, to let her know.
We're coming for her.
The Latin wish people call her
Scully chuckanut. But here in Miami,
where she's been held in captivity
for the last 50 years, she's Lolita.
She's legal property of the Miami Seaquarium.
When you are close to her,
you can feel the sadness that
she's just hanging on it.
It's just taking a lot
longer than we'd ever hoped.
Scully Chuckanut story begins
in 1970 around the time King.
5 began investigating orca
captures in Puget Sound
and aircraft flying over the San Juans
to spot him boats with explosives to
separate the adults from the babies.
It was during one of these captures,
Scully Chuckanut was violently taken from
her family in Washington's pen codes.
Was just four years old.
She only wanted the babies.
She is the longest living orca in captivity.
When she was brought to a pin on the dock by
the harbor she was crying.
Her mother was crying.
People around Penn Cove.
The older people can still
hear the cries, the screams,
the whole capture itself.
How traumatizing would
that have been terribly
traumatic? Pain on the side of their
heads when those bombs are going off?
Howard Garrett, co-founder of the Orca
Network, showed US photos from some of
those whale captures in the early 70s.
The older females would gather around
the young ones and try to protect them.
They knew what was happening
since her capture. Scully
Chuckanut has lived mostly alone.
You're at the Miami Seaquarium.
It's shallow, there's nowhere in her
tank that's deep enough that she can dive
Ellie Kinley and Raynell Morris
are Lummi tribe members who have
visited Scully Chuckanut in Miami.
You know, you're not alone.
You'll see that there's two umbrellas for
the trainers that are working with her,
but yet there's no shade for her,
according to a 2021 inspection report,
she's fed poor quality rotten food.
The water in her tank is dirty and
her trainers disregarded veterinarian.
Instructions to make her
perform despite injuries.
This is an extreme case of torture
and abuse. She's been treated very,
very badly by a lot of the staff
in March. The Dolphin Company
purchased the Miami Seaquarium
as a condition of the sale.
The company had to retire Scully Chanut.
For now. She remains in Miami.
The company did not return
our request for comment.
She is now gone from the corporate
books from an asset to a liability.
Though that's a huge incentive
for them to come to the table
and want to partner with us.
Scali chuckanuts advocates are working
to get an independent veterinarian to
assess her condition and determine
whether she could safely make
the 3000 mile journey back home.
It's been done since the 1960s.
Hundreds of times orcas have
been transported by plane.
First, Scully chuckanut would be coaxed
into a custom made stretcher and lifted
out of her Miami aquarium with a crane.
The 20 foot 7. £1000 orca would then
be lowered into a small container,
not much bigger than herself,
filled with ice water to prevent overheating.
From there she'll be loaded onto
a cargo plane for a 6 hour trip to
the Bellingham airport next onto a
barge which will transport her to her
ancestral waters in the Salish Sea.
Her new home will look very different
than the cement aquarium she spent
the last half century in the plan,
created in collaboration with wildlife
researchers and marine mammal veterinarians.
Calls for a netted underwater pen.
250 feet long, 100 feet wide and
30 feet deep in fresh ocean water.
The scent of the cedar brings
the salmon home. That scent
travels across the water to her.
She's home, it's calling her home
like it calls the salmon home
here at home and in Miami.
A special call from her family.
And when we went to Miami in 2020,
we brought our cedar with us to put it
in to the water outside of her tank.
So Skelly checked and it
would smell that cedar.
And know that's home. She's 56,
she has 37 plus beautiful
years left of her life.
When she comes home, she'll feel
comforted. Her struggles over.
I can see it.
On the horizon advocates hope for a reunion.
1/2 century in the making.