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County allows a change at Miami Seaquarium, but requires better animal care, inspections

Miami-Dade county commissioners on Tuesday approved the transfer of the Miami Seaquarium’s lease to Cancun-based The Dolphin Company after the agreement was amended to ensure better care for marine animals at the aging marine park, which was cited in a federal inspection for feeding animals spoiled food and letting dolphins swim in algae-infested pools.

Commissioners unanimously voted to allow Festival Fun Parks, a subsidiary of Madrid-based Parques Reunidos that is also known as Palace Entertainment, to sell the lease it has held since 2014 to The Dolphin Company, a marine park operator that owns 32 parks in eight countries.

The county owns the Virginia Key land where the Seaquarium has operated since 1954. Several companies have held the lease to run the marine park over the decades. The lease, which has been extended several times, is valid until Nov. 2044.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Commisssioner Raquel Regalado, who sponsored the proposed lease change, pushed for amendments to the agreement to require the Seaquarium’s new operator to address some of the critical violations that emerged from an inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in June.

In an inspection report published in September, the USDA said the park’s current management, under the leadership of general manager Bill Lentz and curator Chris Plante, ignored advice from its own attending veterinarian, which led to “events of particular concern.” Highlights included having Lolita the killer whale, for five decades the park’s main attraction, perform head-in jumps with an injured jaw, against the veterinarian’s advice.

“We believe this is the chance for significant improvements at the Seaquarium, with a much higher standard of care and more transparency and oversight,” Levine Cava said. “Previously, it was Palace’s operation and we were just taking the rent money. There was very little oversight. Now we are expanding our oversight role and will aggressively monitor the health and well-being of these animals under the new leadership.”

The Miami Seaquarium was cited by the USDA for several violations including not properly separating groups of dolphins, which led to violent fights.
The Miami Seaquarium was cited by the USDA for several violations including not properly separating groups of dolphins, which led to violent fights.

The Mayor sent a letter earlier on Tuesday to Eduardo Albor, The Dolphin Company’s CEO, proposing changes to the lease. The amendments require compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, the maintenance of certifications by recognized organizations as the American Humane Association, and a commitment to seeking an accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Miami-Dade will also step up monitoring of the Seaquarium’s operations, including performing unannounced inspections and requiring that all written communication with federal and state agencies be shared with the county, according to the amendments.

Levine Cava also asked the company for “an updated animal welfare management plan for the marine mammals and infrastructure maintenance and improvement plans on a quarterly basis, with an emphasis on the care and welfare of Lolita.”

She said The Dolphin Company is considering a plan to retire the 56-year-old killer whale and give her more quality of life.

In an e-mailed statement The Dolphin Company said it looks forward to “elevating the care and well-being of all the animals at the Miami Seaquarium. The Dolphin Company supports the County’s efforts to ensure further transparency and accountability at the Miami Seaquarium and to promote animal conservation and welfare. We share these same values and principles. “

Levine Cava and Regalado said changes to the lease also include a request for The Dolphin Company to start conservation, education and awareness programs for the community and classrooms. Regalado said the transfer of the lease to a new company is an opportunity to improve an outdated facility and to ensure there is more transparency and accountability in how the Seaquarium is run.

“The county was simply not aware of everything that was happening at the facility,” she said.

The USDA’s inspection detailed multiple infractions that threatened the welfare of the animals, including instances when park management fed the animals rotting fish that made dolphins sick and practices like forcing Lolita, the 56-year-old orca, to perform head-in jumps with an injured jaw.

Public records showed that federal concerns about Seaquarium operations in recent years were first raised last year by a NOAA scientist who was alarmed at an atypical string of deaths between March 2019 and April 2020.

During that time span, five bottlenose dolphins and a baby California sea lion died — a high number for a park with just 25 dolphins before the deaths occurred. The scientist flagged that to the USDA, according to federal records obtained by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals last month. NOAA manages the National Inventory of Marine Mammals, a database of animals that are kept in captivity in the U.S.

Two dolphins and a sea lion died from trauma to the head and neck, while a third dolphin drowned after getting caught in a net that divides two pools. A fourth dolphin died from an unexplained gas embolism and another one was reported as having developmental abnormalities, according to the documents.

Magdalena Rodriguez, a former veterinarian at the Seaquarium, told the Miami Herald the trauma-related deaths may have been a result of inexperienced staff not spotting unusual animal behavior and placing incompatible animals together.

The lack of a system for managing the movements of the animals in the park’s several pools and tanks was a critical violation in the USDA report. The report said there have been several serious injuries over the past several years, some involving death, from certain dolphins being placed together in pools.

Dolphin fights, rotting food. Fired vet, new federal report detail problems at Seaquarium