KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — Animal rights activists gathered outside the Miami Seaquarium on Saturday, celebrating its upcoming closure.

Protesters said it’s long overdue.

“I saw this coming,” said Holly, an activist with SoFlo Animal Rights. “This was coming for a long, long time.”

The facility, which opened in 1955, will officially close on Sunday.

The Seaquarium, currently operated by The Dolphin Company, is shutting down as it undergoes bankruptcy proceedings in federal court.

Miami developer Terra Group plans to redevelop the site — without marine mammals, a move activists cautiously support.

“We want to ensure the redevelopment plans for this project do not include any kind of captivity of animals,” said Juan Endara, co-founder of SoFlo Animal Rights.

The future of the animals still inside the facility remains unclear.

The Seaquarium has long been a staple of Miami tourism, offering generations of families the chance to see dolphins, sea lions and other marine animals up close. But in recent years, public sentiment has shifted, especially after the death of Lolita — the world’s oldest orca in captivity — who died shortly before a planned release into the ocean.

Her death, along with a series of federal inspection reports citing animal welfare violations and infrastructure issues, intensified calls for the facility’s closure. The county eventually moved to terminate the lease and evict the operator, prompting the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Activists hope the Seaquarium’s closure sparks broader reform.

“Captivity is a death sentence,” one protester said. “It’s a lifetime of humiliation. The animals cannot do anything normal or natural. They’re trapped in tiny tanks, while in the wild they have the entire ocean.”

Supporters plan to return to the Seaquarium on Sunday afternoon — not to protest, but to celebrate what they see as a long-overdue victory for marine life.

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