Miami Seaquarium said it would close Saturday “to allow our team to reflect on Lolita’s life and legacy.”

Only 73 southern resident orcas exist in the wild. Scientists just discovered that 3 of them are pregnant.

Lolita was violently captured at Penn Cove, near Washington state’s coast, on Aug. 8, 1970, at about the age of four, according to animal rights activists. Around 80 orcas were encircled, and as captors sought to bag the orcas, several of them drowned, according to video evidence and an interview with a person who participated in the act.

Lolita was then sold to the Miami Seaquarium. She shared her enclosure with Hugo, a male orca, for much of her first 10 years in captivity. Hugo died in 1980 due to a brain aneurysm, according to Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project, a nonprofit organization.

The Miami Seaquarium said in March that Lolita would be returned to her home waters within two years. The plan was made by the aquarium’s owner, The Dolphin Company; the nonprofit Friends of Toki; and Jim Irsay, owner of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts who was financially backing her relocation.

In a short statement Friday, Irsay said he was heartbroken. “I take solace in knowing that we significantly improved her living conditions this past year,” he wrote.

In the weeks before her death, veterinarians reported Lolita was experiencing “abdominal/stomach discomfort,” although she was in relatively stable condition.

Lolita was undergoing conditioning to prepare her for travel to an ocean habitat in the waters off Washington state under the care of professionals. Lolita’s caretakers deemed her unable to “survive the demanding life in the wilderness, after more than 50 years in human care.”

In the wild, male orcas live for an average of 30 years, or a maximum of 50-60 years, and female orcas for an average of 46 years, or a maximum of 80-90 years, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a British charity group. As of June 26, at least 53 orcas were held in captivity globally. Of the 166 orcas taken into captivity from the wild in the last six decades, more than 130 are dead, according to the group.