MIAMI – With Miami-Dade County issuing the owners of the Miami Seaquarium an eviction letter on Monday, Local 10 News is working to address your questions about what could happen to the animals at the marine park.
A Sunday deadline for the park owners to vacate the premises came and went Sunday, with the park operating business as usual on Monday.
Its owners plan to fight any eviction.
‘The animals belong to the company’
During a March 7 news conference where Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and County Commissioner Raquel Regalado announced the county’s decision to terminate Miami Seaquarium operator the Dolphin Company’s lease, the mayor told Local 10′s Christina Vazquez “to be clear, the animals belong to the company, they do not belong to the County.”
The county, she said, “does not have the ability to intervene at this point, only the U.S. Department of Agriculture can do that.” She confirmed that the Dolphin Company, as owners of the animals, could transfer the animals to other parks in its portfolio.
Regalado added that from what they understand it also “depends on the animal” because “some of them are owned outright, some of them are leased, some could return to their lease holds.”
On Monday, Holly, of SoFlo Animal Rights, told Local 10 News that she does find it “frustrating” that the Dolphin Company, as the owner of the animals, is able to, in her words “traffick” them to other facilities.
“We know it is very complicated,” she said about the intersection the animals have with different federal regulatory agencies based on species, “but ultimately what is so sad is the animals are just property so even if they do close and the animals are removed it is still sad, but yet, the one good thing is that it would be one less marine park so it signifies a change in public opinion, so that is something to celebrate, but right now we are sad.”
Contingency plans
During an interview on April 12 with Local 10 News, Miami-Dade County Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales said that the county is working on contingency plans in the event the Dolphin Company should abandon animals if it does eventually vacate the premises.
Those plans include working with federal partners who have jurisdictional and regulator oversight over certain animals as well as assessing County resources where permissible like Zoo Miami.
Dolphin Company officials say they plan to stay.
“We are a long ways away from determining what happens to the site,” Regalado said.
Federal oversight agencies
In the past year, federal agencies have also decided to transport some of the animals at the Miami Seaquarium to other facilities.
In those cases, it would be the decision of the federal agency and the private partner taking in the animal, rather than Miami-Dade County.
For example, in August of 2023, following the passing of beloved orca Lolita, two of Lolita’s dolphin companions, Loke and Elelo, were taken to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
A spokesperson for that institution said at the time that it “responded to an urgent need to provide sanctuary for two Pacific white-sided dolphins…from the Miami Seaquarium living in insufficient environmental conditions. The transport of 40-year-old female dolphin Loke and her 5-year-old son, Elelo to Shedd’s 3-million-gallon cold water habitat took place on August 3 under authorization from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Office of Protected Resources.”
A month later, the third of Lolita’s dolphin companions, Li’i, Elelo’s father, was transferred from the Miami Seaquarium to SeaWorld San Antonio.
A SeaWorld spokesperson told Local 10 News in a news release that “the expedited transport of this 40-year-old male dolphin to AZA-accredited SeaWorld San Antonio took place on September 24, 2023 under authorization from the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources.”
In November, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed that it was working with “an experienced team of manatee rescue and rehabilitation experts to assist with the transport effort of manatees from Miami Seaquarium.”
Despite the eviction, Miami-Dade’s mayor said “We are not at this time seeking a new operator.”
“We are going to follow the law and hopefully get to the point that we are able to evict them and then plot a new future for what will happen,” Morales said.