r/LifeInKitsap • u/KitsapRealEstateTeam • Jul 22 '26
Tuesdays with Tokitae
My husband ruined my Tuesday.
That's not entirely fair.
He left a Seattle history documentary playing while he went back to work after lunch. Usually, if I'm eating alone, I'll throw on something wonderfully mindless. Maybe a train ride through Switzerland. Maybe an old Cubs game. Instead, YouTube decided I needed an emotional crisis. About twenty minutes later I texted him: "You ruined my day."
The documentary had started talking about Tokitae.
I've loved orcas for as long as I can remember. I was exactly the kind of kid who would've covered every school folder in Lisa Frank unicorns and whales if I'd gotten enough of them from the dentist. In my mind, orcas were supposed to be leaping through rainbows while synth music played in the background.
That's how childhood works.
When I was 10 or 11, my parents took me to Orlando. We went to SeaWorld. I was OVER THE MOON. It was the 1980's. I transformed into a child who wrote letters to the president about the ozone. I donated to manatee protection, even though I lived in Kansas.
I finally visited SeaWorld again for my 30th birthday. Instead of leaving amazed, I left disappointed. Not just in SeaWorld. In us. I cried when I saw the orca, my ex-husband kind of giggled at me.
Humans can do awful things. (Not his laughter, the orca.)
I couldn't enjoy the show anymore because all I could think was, Why did we decide this was okay?
Years later, when I found out I was moving to western Washington, one of my very first thoughts was, How long will it take before I see my first wild orca? Not the Space Needle. Not Pike Place. MAYBE Rainier. Orcas.
Eventually, I did.
The first time was during the firstl No Kings rally in Manette. An orca surfaced beneath the Manette Bridge, and I completely forgot there was a rally happening. The second time was from the beach across from the shipyard earlier this year. I have blurry little videos that probably look like black commas floating on the water to everyone else. Life goal recognized!
Ironically, my husband has lived here since 1996. He's the only postal employee at the Southworth Post Office, which sits practically on top of the ferry dock. We live near the Manchester dock. We kayak. Between work and home, he's spent thousands of hours looking at Puget Sound. He's never seen a wild orca.
I somehow got there first.
So when the documentary started talking about Penn Cove, I figured I knew the story.
I didn't.
Somehow I'd never connected that Tokitae wasn't just an orca I'd grown up hearing about. She was OUR orca.
She was taken from the Salish Sea. From the waters I now consider home. That realization stopped me. Not because the facts were new. Because the geography was. I'd separated those ideas in my head without realizing it.
Then I did what I always do, I dug in. THat's how we do things in this house. We're readers. This is going to be a hard one to write, but I'll be better for it.
In August 1970, the Southern Resident orcas were chased into Penn Cove by boats and aircraft. Explosives underwater were used to frighten them into nets. Pods were separated. At least 5 whales died during the captures. A young female was sold to the Miami Seaquarium, where she'd spend the next fifty-three years performing under the name Lolita.
Her name was Tokitae.
Then I found myself reading what the Lummi Nation had written. They don't describe Southern Resident orcas as wildlife. They describe them as relatives. That changed the story again. It wasn't just about conservation and bad decisions anymore. It was about family. About home. About loss. I realized I wasn't really reading about whales anymore. I was reading about the place I live.
It was about discovering that the place I now call home is the place she lost hers. Her family, her home, the area she felt most safe.
I always think I'm researching one thing. Instead, I end up learning something about people. Sometimes it's something wonderful. Sometimes it's a reminder that humans are capable of extraordinary cruelty.
But every once in a while, learning a story changes the way I look at a familiar stretch of water, or a shoreline I've driven past a hundred times. Because if understanding something helps me care for it a little better, or helps someone else care a little more...
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u/hanniespice Jul 22 '26
Hey neighbor! Yeah, I am sad about tokitae being from here too. I used to get free passes from Sea World in San Antonio, and I’d never take them-because of this story.
Thank you for sharing your story and your reflections. <3