MIAMI – Activist groups have lost the latest battle in a decadeslong fight to free a Puget Sound orca named Lolita from the Miami Seaquarium.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a petition to reopen a lawsuit over Seaquarium’s treatment of Lolita.

She lives in the country’s smallest orca aquarium, and has been Seaquarium’s star attraction since she was captured in the Puget Sound in 1970.

The decision says that, at around 51, Lolita’s age makes the case unique. The court also couldn’t identify a “realistic means” to return her to the wild without being harmed.