“NOAA has a huge credibility problem with the southern residents. You have known for over a decade they don’t have enough food and now SeaWorld is involved,” Sandy Wright, a Seattle resident, said at the Sunday meeting. “We will not be silent while SeaWorld tries to repair their reputation using the southern residents once again for their own selfish greed.”

SeaWorld was a customer for many members of J Pod, one of the three families that make up the southern residents, which were hunted for aquarium display in the 1960s and 1970s, according to historian Sandra Pollard, author of “Puget Sound Whales for Sale.” All except one of the animals taken during that time — a third of the pods — have since died. Orca whales in the wild have similar life expectancy to healthy humans, with some living to be more than 80 years old.

NOAA never intended to put J50 in captivity, and its efforts were only intended to get the animal back to health and into the wild, Barre said.

“I hear a lack of trust with NOAA,” Scott Rumsey, deputy regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region, said at the Sunday hearing in Seattle. “The only way we can improve that trust is for you to engage and for us to listen ... I promise to you right now I am here because I want to build that trust.”