Federal Probes, Sick Animals, and Fed-Up Vets: The Miami Seaquarium Is on the Brink of Collapse

Black mold growing in a penguin enclosure. Flamingos confined in a cage near stagnant, algal, murky water. A dolphin found with a nail in its throat, another with a broken bolt in its mouth. Animals forced to perform for onlookers, who — after paying $41.99 to ogle at captive sealife — walk away feeling “more sad than anything.” The facility is “falling apart,” one visitor writes in an online review. The animals are “horribly mistreated” and should be set free, writes another. The conditions are so squalid that federal investigators routinely cite the facility for violating federal law, and even Tripadvisor, the sprawling travel services website with global reach, won’t sell tickets “because it does not meet our animal welfare guidelines.”

Welcome to the Miami Seaquarium: one of the oldest oceanariums in the United States, and, increasingly, one of the most notorious. Several animals, including a famed orca whale, have died in its care in recent years, while it has been forced to relinquish custody of numerous other animals amid investigations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, a federal law that regulates animal treatment in exhibition settings. Against that backdrop, the Seaquarium’s head veterinarian resigned this week — following the departures of three veterinary staffers who quit in protest in recent months — while an animal rights organization recently called for a local police investigation into allegations of animal cruelty at the facility.

Once a classic family outing or school field trip, aquariums, like zoos, have seen their public image collapse over the last decade or so. The 2013 film “Blackfish,” about an orca whale named Tilikum held in captivity at SeaWorld, was pivotal in turning public opinion. The film depicted how the extreme stress inflicted on orcas like Tilikum upon their capture — and subsequent lifetime of captivity and forced performances — cascades into staying trauma and aggression toward other marine animals and even humans. The production helped spur an increasing social awareness about “the physical and psychological suffering of marine mammals,” said Jared Goodman, PETA Foundation general counsel for animal law.

Since then, the public has more meaningfully confronted “just what [animals] have to endure to survive in marine parks,” Goodman said. “They’re not even thriving, it’s just what it takes to survive there. And the public was rightfully outraged about that.”

“We have to stop thinking that we are the only species that matters.”

Naomi Rose, senior scientist of marine mammal biology at the Animal Welfare Institute, put a finer point on it. “If we cannot provide species with good welfare in zoos and aquaria, we should not hold them there,” Rose told The Intercept. “That’s just common sense and respectful. We have to stop thinking that we are the only species that matters.”

In their resignation letters, the Seaquarium’s former veterinary staff who quit in the fall cited a management that has dismissed staff concerns regarding animal care, been delinquent on repaying debts, and kept the facility understaffed.

In early February, an independent veterinarian who runs the animal rights group Our Honor raised alarm about possible animal cruelty violations at the Seaquarium in letters to Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, county commissioners, the local prosecutor, and the city and county police. After touring the facility in January and speaking with recently departed employees, the vet, Crystal Heath, urged local officials to take action against the Dolphin Company, which owns the Seaquarium.

“The executives at The Dolphin Company must be held accountable for these animal cruelty violations,” Heath wrote in her letter, which was signed by 18 other vets from Florida and around the country. “They foster an environment of fear, coercion, and false hope while failing to pay their debts or update their antiquated, crumbling facilities. The Dolphin Company has a history of threatening and retaliating against staff who voice concerns about the lack of care for the animals and dilapidated facilities.”

The Miami-Dade Police Department told The Intercept that it is evaluating the contents of Heath’s letter and is also “aware of USDA oversight and investigation.” The Seaquarium did not respond to requests for comment. In recent public statements, the Dolphin Company has said that it takes animal welfare seriously and that it is in compliance with relevant laws; it has also disputed some findings by federal investigators or taken action to remedy others.

The mounting pressure for local officials to act comes as the county, which owns the site of the facility, has threatened the Seaquarium with terminating its lease over USDA citations for animal welfare violations and for being delinquent on rent payments.

In a statement to The Intercept, Levine Cava said that, while the facility has taken some remedial action, she remains “concerned about the poor quality of animal care that has been repeatedly documented by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) since last year.” She and the county commissioner who represents the Seaquarium’s district are exploring “all the options available to ensure the safety of the animals and the interests of our residents now and in the future,” she wrote. “Our County team is actively working on possible next steps.”

In February, the facility lost its certification with the American Humane Association, which it is required to hold under its lease agreement. Should the county cancel the lease, it would essentially force the Seaquarium to shut down.

“I do think the county is in a really unique position here to do the right thing,” Goodman, the PETA general counsel, told The Intercept. “Certainly our perspective is that they’ve proven unwilling or unable to be fully compliant with the Animal Welfare Act, and that should be a sufficient basis for the county to terminate the lease.”

“These Animals Deserve Better”

At nearly 70 years old, the Miami Seaquarium was one of the first facilities of its kind in the country, predating the likes of SeaWorld. At one point it was the third largest contributor to Miami-Dade County’s revenue through lease and tax payments, yet its star has descended in recent years — evident in public comments about it, statements of disgust from staff who recently departed it, and continuous citations from those who oversee it.

Several staff members have reached a breaking point in recent months. During an inspection last summer, the USDA found that three veterinary technicians had recently resigned — and that there was a single veterinarian on staff. In the fall, another three staff members — an associate veterinarian, a technician, and a veterinary administrative assistant — resigned in rejection of an environment that they said was ill-fitted toward animal, or even staff, care. And now, the facility’s last remaining head veterinarian is on her way out too.

“This news raises even more concerns about the conditions and safety of the animals currently under their care,” Levine Cava, the mayor, wrote in a statement about the head veterinarian’s departure. “Miami-Dade County is taking all steps necessary to enforce compliance with our current lease agreement as we move closer to termination.”

Issues of animal welfare at the Seaquarium have been top of mind for staff who have resigned. “Never in my 14 years working as a Certified Veterinary Technician have I ever had so much dis-pleasure working with someone,” one former staff member who resigned in October wrote in an email to management, calling the company deceitful and greedy. “I don’t know how you can sleep at night lying and prioritizing other things than the animals’ health and wellbeing. These animals deserve better than this and it breaks my heart every night knowing there’s not even a fight in any of you to TRY!”

In internal veterinary journals reviewed by The Intercept, staff expressed an array of frustrations, including butting heads with an outside consulting veterinarian brought in by upper management to care for the beloved orca whale Toki, previously known as Lolita, who died last year. Another journal entry describes a parrot with a history of respiratory illness “continuing to pluck and self mutilate.” The parrot’s treatment was hampered by short staffing at the facility and financial restraints, the entry notes, and due to a “deteriorating” quality of life, its caretakers decided to euthanize it.  One former employee said that they provided copies of those journals to USDA investigators.

The former staff member, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal, told The Intercept that upper management pressured staff members to “chaperone the USDA and make sure that they’re on the right path” when officials would visit. Others have raised concerns relating to USDA investigations as well. One employee who was fired in 2022 alleged in a disability discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit that she was retaliated against after telling a USDA investigator that company management had coerced her to delete a video she captured of poor safety protocols during an “experimental dolphin veterinary examination.” (The Seaquarium has denied her allegations and filed a motion to dismiss the suit; the case is due for trial in September.)

Heath, the Our Honor vet, documented similar concerns in her letter to Miami-Dade County officials. The letter included testimony from a former employee who said that they feared retaliation for reporting concerns within the company or complying with USDA investigations — stifled both by pressure from upper management and strict nondisclosure agreements.

The former employee who spoke to The Intercept said that they also had serious disagreements with management about animal care, many of them stemming from a lack of funds. Higher-ups directed veterinarians to substitute medications when new ones could not be purchased due to unpaid bills, according to the former employee and an internal email reviewed by The Intercept.

At one point last year, the facility had more veterinarians than veterinarian technicians, contra staffing guidelines from the American Veterinary Medical Association, according to the former employee. A shortage of technicians means that veterinarians end up doing tasks — like lab work, nursing care, and grooming — that they certainly could do, but are not always accustomed to after becoming so specialized. “It takes away from what they should have been doing, which is reviewing records, speaking to keepers to make sure that they understand any changes in behavior, things like that,” the former employee said. 

Another former staff member wrote in a November resignation letter that they did “not believe the values of this company align with my own.” The person decided to quit after growing increasingly less comfortable with the medical direction of the company, “with minimal diagnostic equipment, no support staff, and now compromised relationships with outside labs, veterinary colleagues, and veterinary vendors due to delinquent bills.” The concerns about the Seaquarium’s finances are documented in internal communications reviewed by The Intercept. In an email to Seaquarium leadership, veterinary staff noted that outstanding debts to a number of labs and vendors impeded their ability to conduct out-of-house medical tests and that they were unable to purchase vitamin supplements and diagnostic equipment.

The Seaquarium’s management — both the previous Festival Fun Parks, and the current MS Leisure Company (owned by the Dolphin Company) — has been sued by debtors 10 times within the past two years. Seven of those cases — brought by a pharmacy, a contractor that built a whale gate, a novelty toy and gift company, a scaffolding company, a security provider, a marine maintenance company, and a boat lift company — remain open at various stages in the legal process, with the plaintiffs altogether seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Seaquarium. The company filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit involving the whale gate and has not yet filed responses in the remaining lawsuits.

Repeat Inspections

Just since last summer, USDA investigators visited the Seaquarium multiple times and reported troubling findings. In July, investigators found a young dolphin with plastic and “a large piece of cement” in its digestive tract and another dolphin with “multiple bilateral rib fractures.” The USDA also cited the Seaquarium for failing “to maintain a sufficient number of adequately trained employees.” A single veterinarian, the report said, was tasked with caring for 46 marine mammals and hundreds of birds, fish, sharks, and rays.

The following month, Toki died of old age and chronic illnesses, worn by the limited conditions and life the orca whale had been confined to for years. In 2021, for example, USDA reports showed that veterinarians were concerned that the orca was being underfed while being forced to exert herself in training and shows, while medical records showed her suffering from jaw injuries, likely from specific motions in performances.

The Seaquarium kept Toki in the smallest orca tank in North America, commonly referred to as the “whale bowl.” In 2022, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, noted in an inspection that Toki’s tank did not meet the Animal Welfare Act’s minimum space requirements.

That acknowledgement was too little, too late, said Rose, the marine biologist. “The tank didn’t suddenly shrink overnight and the space regulations have been the same since 1984,” Rose told The Intercept. “It was surreal.”

“It is an ongoing joke that an animal has to die before APHIS will act,” Rose said, “but in fact even when an animal dies, as Toki did, nothing happens.”

The USDA returned to the Seaquarium in October and found a sea lion in so much pain due to a delayed cataract surgery that she refused to eat, among other animal welfare violations, according to a copy of its report that was obtained by the advocacy group Dolphin Project. (The sea lion was euthanized in January.) In early November, the agency made the report from its July investigation public. Shortly afterward, the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces office warned the Dolphin Company that it had 45 days to rectify the violations that USDA had flagged. The county “had determined that the Seaquarium is in violation” of its lease agreement, the office wrote. (The Seaquarium appealed the USDA findings, arguing that many of the issues predate the Dolphin Company’s ownership of the facility and that it had taken steps to rectify some violations.)

While the Seaquarium was being scrutinized over the USDA findings, UrgentSeas — a whistleblower organization advocating for the end of animal captivity — filmed a drone video that showed a 67-year-old manatee, Romeo, aimlessly swimming in circles in a small filthy tank. The November 25 video went viral, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to transport Romeo and two other sea cows, Juliet and Charity, to other facilities.

The situation escalated in December, first when the county dinged the Seaquarium with another violation, after USDA inspectors found a shortage of “sufficient number of adequately trained employees.” The Seaquarium quickly filed an appeal with the USDA and the county, contesting the charge. On December 22, the county issued yet another notice of default that cited a list of infrastructure violations and the facility owing nearly $90,000 in past rent. (The Miami-Dade mayor told The Intercept that the Seaquarium has until March 10 to pay up before financial penalties are imposed.)

Days later, Sundance, a bottlenose dolphin whose health USDA investigators raised concerns about last summer, died. The death prompted USDA officials to conduct another inspection of the aquarium on January 9, during which officials cited several Animal Welfare Act violations, including a lack of appropriate veterinary care for 25 animals. The feds returned again on January 17 to find four animals “still in need of immediate veterinary care,” prompting them to issue a notice of intent to confiscate the animals.

On January 21, Levine Cava, the Miami-Dade mayor, warned the Seaquarium that the county had begun “diligently reviewing all necessary actions” to pursue terminating the facility’s lease, citing the recent USDA investigations. She noted that the county was working with the USDA, which said that it had not confiscated an animal in 30 years. “This underscores the gravity of the situation and cannot be taken lightly,” Levine Cava wrote.

Two days later, USDA officials said that the Seaquarium “took necessary corrective action to come into compliance” with regard to the four animals who were in need of veterinary care.

Heath, the Our Honor vet, meanwhile told Miami-Dade officials in her February 5 letter that animals at the Seaquarium were suffering from skin lesions, clouded eyes or cataracts, and signs of distress. She formed those observations when she independently toured and investigated the Seaquarium in January and after reviewing photos taken in early February. Those conditions constitute a litany of animal cruelty law violations, she wrote in the letter.

The Seaquarium’s ability to stave off investigators followed a pattern. Goodman, the lawyer from PETA, said that the facility had been able to “superficially” rectify violations in ways “apparently sufficient for the USDA” over the past several years.

The Dolphin Company took over management of the Miami Seaquarium from another company two years ago. Levine Cava celebrated USDA approval of the deal at the time, calling it “turning the page and beginning a bright new chapter in the Seaquarium’s history.” She said her administration’s priorities included operation of the Seaquarium “pursuant to all applicable federal and state laws and regulations, including the Animal Welfare Act,” gesturing toward a desire to “ensure that these commitments are kept.”

Heath and the other vets pointed to the change in management in their letter to local officials. They entreated the county to shutter the facility and to prevent the management company from transporting animals to another of its facilities. “When The Dolphin Company purchased Miami Seaquarium, like you, we had high hopes that things were going to change, but they have not,” they wrote. “Because of these violations of Florida law, we urge you to use your power not only to revoke the Dolphin Company’s lease but also to encourage law enforcement to pursue the legal action needed to protect the animals.”