This was Hugo's home for 2 years. He was captured in February, 1968 from a small bay in Puget Sound. A female captured with Hugo was shipped to a New York aquarium, where she died seven months later.

Hugo was about 23 feet long when captured, which means he was in his early teens, much older than most of the captives. He was placed in a tiny pool that is now the manatee pool at the Seaquarium while plans were made for construction of a larger pool about 100 yards away. Construction was completed about the time Lolita was captured and delivered to Miami in September, 1970.

For the first few weeks after Lolita was put in the new tank Hugo remained in the manatee tub for fear they would fight. But they were members of the same family and shared the same calls, so instead they called to each other repeatedly through the air all day, every day. Lolita was given her name because Hugo seemed to want to mate with Lolita.

Hugo and Lolita performed their daily routines, but on many occasions Hugo simply refused and acted aggressively, according to one of their first trainers in 1970. His dorsal fin soon flopped over. He repeatedly bashed his head against the wall and against the viewing windows. He broke several windows, once nearly severing the tip of his rostrum, which had to be sewn back on.