"Lolita Loves the Ocean is a wonderful and most timely book. Youngsters are ambassadors for the future, and this inspirational story will surely motivate them to do more for the nonhuman animals with whom we share our wondrous planet. I can well see how Lolita's story also will have global appeal for older readers."
- DR. MARC BEKOFF, Author of "Rewilding our Hearts: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence", Guggenheim fellow, and recipient of the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society for his long-term significant contributions to the field of animal behavior.
"This book is an amazingly detailed and accurate portrait of Toki's real life, and the traumas and tragedies she has had to live through. I hope it will show people of all ages, but especially young teens, how captivity for entertainment devastates real orca persons, with real homes and families."
- HOWARD GARRETT, Orca researcher and co-founder of Orca Network
Other endorsements include Erwin Vermeulen and Susan Hartland, former Chief Engineer and former Administrator, respectively, of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society under the former leadership of founder Captain Paul Watson.
Most of profits from "Lolita Loves the Ocean: The Story of a Wild Orca" will be donated to Orca Network (orcanetwork.org) for Lolita's fund to return home.
All profits from Sequeira's books are donated to animal protection and advocacy non-profit organizations, many of which are sanctuaries for wildlife and farm animals.
This Dec 2018 revised edition includes an update on the critically endangered Southern Resident orca population and an urgent call to breach the 4 lower snake river dams in eastern Washington immediately to restore the breeding of declining wild Chinook Salmon, comprising over 80% of the SRKW diet, to save these orcas from starvation and near extinction (see whaleresearch.com for details and ways you can help). Breaching the dams is the most effective and simplest solution to save the orcas, Lolita's family, from extinction. Chinook salmon are 10% of their historic numbers. The dams significantly block millions of adult salmon from swimming upstream to spawn, and kill millions more of young salmon who never make it to adulthood.
Based on true events, "Lolita Loves the Ocean: The Story of a Wild Orca", offers both children and adults a vivid insightful account of the life of Lolita or Toki, the second oldest captive orca in the world, surviving in the U.S at Miami Seaquarium, Florida. Wildlife researcher Gina Sequeira embarks readers on an intimate journey of the ways of wild orcas, and onto Lolita's mental and physical struggle as a prisoner. Accompanied by dynamic illustrations from former San Francisco Academy of Art instructor Christopher Newhard and Sequeira, Lolita's story may be told transparently without words.
"Lolita Loves the Ocean" uncovers the remarkable deep love among orca families, invites us to rethink our connection or lack thereof with cetaceans, and to expand our perception of them from outside the concrete box.
An extensive epilogue provides more scientific information including the current welfare of the Southern Resident orcas (SRKWs) of the Pacific Northwest, and The Center for Whale Research's plan for "Toki's Journey Back Home" to a protected sanctuary in her home waters to reunite if she chooses, with her 89 year-old mother, Ocean Sun, the powerful yet gentle matriarch and leader of her family pod.
Written for ages 8 and up, Sequeira inspires us to ponder the question of whether we are helping or harming fellow non-human animals, and to examine our interactions with all animals in terms of respect, morality and compassion for the natural world.
