Another dolphin, named Bimini, has died at the embattled Miami Seaquarium amid ongoing controversy.
The dolphin was one of four animals the USDA had marked for confiscation due to alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
Inspection reports noted the Seaquarium failed to provide adequate veterinary care and had crumbling infrastructure.
The park’s parent company is facing an eviction battle with Miami-Dade County and has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Another dolphin has died at the Miami Seaquarium, an embattled marine park at the center of ongoing controversy for repeated animal safety violations and “suffering,” inspection violations, bankruptcy and an eviction battle.
The Seaquarium, owned by the MS Leisure Company, under which subsidiary The Dolphin Company operates, has been the subject of criticism and regular protests, with activist groups including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demanding its closure for over a decade. On Sept. 16, Miami-Dade County was notified that Bimini, a 26-year-old Atlantic Bottlenose dolphin, had died due to chronic health issues.
“The loss of Bimini is felt profoundly by everyone at Miami Seaquarium and across the local community,” Steven Strom, Independent Director of MS Leisure Company, said in a news release. “It is with heavy hearts that our entire Miami Seaquarium Team remembers Bimini’s enduring legacy.”
Bimini was one of four animals marked for confiscation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a notice sent on Jan. 19, 2024, which accused MS Leisure of failing to comply with the Animal Welfare Act.
“I’ve been informed that this confiscation is the first time in 30 years that the USDA has taken such a measure with marine mammals,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a Jan. 21, 2024, letter to company president Eduardo Albor. “This underscores the gravity of the situation and cannot be taken lightly.”
The confiscation was never completed, however, and two of the four animals on the list have since died.
USA TODAY has reached out to Mayor Cava’s office, the USDA/APHIS and The Dolphin Company, but has not received a response.
Evictions, bankruptcy, animal deaths plague the marine park
At least 11 known marine mammals have died at Seaquarium since March 2022, said animal advocate and former SeaWorld trainer Valerie Greene. “If Bimini had been confiscated last year, perhaps she’d still be alive,” Greene said.
The Seaquarium received an eviction notice from Miami-Dade County in January 2024, demanding it vacate the property by April 21, 2024. Leisure Investments violated its lease by treating its animals poorly and keeping the Seaquarium’s grounds improperly maintained, according to city officials. However, a judge later denied the county’s motion for an immediate eviction in November 2024 after Sequarium refused to vacate, saying it had evidence proving the claims in the demand letter were false.
The Dolphin Company later filed for Chapter 11 protection on March 31.
While the Seaquarium said in a news release issued Sept. 17 that Bimini had died “under the attentive care of experts at the Miami Seaquarium,” inspection documents from the USDA’S Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) show that adequate veterinary care for Bimini had been repeatedly delayed or denied altogether due to an apparent lack of resources in the years before her death.
“I’m sure Bimini was miserable leading up to her death,” said Greene, who was familiar with Bimini’s treatment through her work with TideBreakers, an animal welfare group seeking to end captivity and improve laws and conditions for kept marine animals. “She was chronically ill and had suffered for a long time. The Seaquarium is going to say she was chronically ill and they did their best, but what kind of care was she receiving? Because she’s dead now.”
Dolphins endured ‘pain and suffering,’ according to USDA inspections
According to a USDA inspection report from October 2023, an APHIS veterinary medical officer found that Bimini had been discovered with a broken metal bolt in her mouth. The same records noted another dolphin kept at the facility had been found with foreign objects, including “a two-inch nail, mangrove pods, and small pieces of shell” in its throat.
“Enclosures that are not kept in good repair may produce foreign material which could be ingested and become injurious to the animals,” the inspection note said.
Records reviewed by APHIS similarly indicated that, on numerous occasions, the facility’s attending veterinarian “made the determination that certain actions needed to be taken, however the facility did not follow through with these actions,” including neglecting to schedule surgeries and procedures and failing to provide veterinary staff with basic equipment, including weighing scales, access to an ultrasound, radiography, endoscopy, CT or gastroscope, or a funcitoning anesthesia machine for emergencies.
Conditions did not improve for Bimini in the ensuing months, according to a January 2024 USDA inspection report, which noted she had a “complicated medical history” that required specialized diagnostic procedures that the Seaquarium could not provide. Bimini experienced “pain and suffering,” said the document, due to multiple broken ribs in various stages of healing resulting from attacks from other dolphins she was housed with. These fractures were observed in a Feb. 2023 CT scan, which was the last imaging she had received, said the report.
In a news release, The Dolphin Company said the injuries were diagnosed in 2021 and occurred “prior to MS Leisure’s ownership of the Miami Seaquarium,” which began in March 2022. Dr. Jenna Wallace, a former veterinarian at Miami Seaquarium, confirmed to USA TODAY that these injuries occurred in 2021 under the purview of then-owner, Palace Entertainment.
The poor treatment of Bimini, however, remained consistent between owners, Wallace told USA TODAY.
“Bimini was one of the turning points for me personally and professionally when employed at Miami Seaquarium in 2021,” she said. “Despite the obvious defects of her thorax, and after reviewing the fractured ribs on the radiographs and the ultrasound images of the fluid around Bimini’s heart, the staff refused to believe or acknowledge her condition.”
Bimini’s medical history was extensive and included persistent and serious pulmonary (lung) disease; tracheal stenosis, or inflammation or scar tissue that narrows the airway; moderate to severe diffuse lung disease, or lung disease that causes scarring in the lung tissue; significant bronchiectasis; kidney stones and fluid distention in the uterus.
As a result, Bimini exhibited difficulty breathing, which impacted her quality of life, according to the inspecting APHIS veterinary medical officer. While trainers told the inspector that Bimini was only instructed to perform a limited number of stunts, the medical officer observed respiratory distress even when the dolphin performed an “approved” action.
A veterinarian had prescribed imaging and testing to further address these concerns in September 2023, but “due to the lack of veterinary staff, equipment and specialists (CT imaging and anesthesia), and more pressing critical animal care cases,” none had been completed by the January 2024 inspection.
“Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins with respiratory abnormalities often experience a rapid decline in health which can result in pneumonia and death,” the report reads. “They would require immediate veterinary attention with appropriate diagnostic equipment onsite as well as highly experienced staff to provide appropriate veterinary care and to alleviate suffering.”
Other aquatic mammals examined during the same inspection were found to be in “poor body condition” and severely underweight with visible spines, ribs and shoulder blades. Both inspections noted issues with the environments in which animals were housed, highlighting murky water, crumbling infrastructure, “strong noxious odor,” and housing structures that remained unrepaired despite previous USDA instruction to do so.
“There are several animals deemed critical by the (attending veterinarian) that require medical treatments, diagnostic evaluations, and medical procedures that are not being provided to alleviate suffering,” the January USDA report said.
Earlier reports dating back to 2021 show that crumbling structures resulted in multiple instances of animals being found with debris like concrete in their stomachs. Multiple structures, including a deck in the dolphin area, were condemned between 2021 and 2025.
“We’ve been screaming from the rooftops,” say activists
These and other conditions have been extensively documented and brought to the attention of authorities, including Miami-Dade, the USDA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), said Greene. Yet, despite promises of confiscations, closures and improving conditions, animals are still suffering, she said.
Wallace echoed the sentiment, saying poor animal treatment has gone on too long at the Seaquarium.
“This is one of the most tragic failures in animal welfare and federal oversight. I am hopeful that Florida FWC and DOJ will help right these wrongs that USDA failed to act on,” she said.
NOOA referred USA TODAY back to the APHIS when asked for comment. USA TODAY has reached out to FWC, but has not received a response.
“We’ve been screaming from the rooftops that the animals are being abused–to the County, to the federal agencies, yet nothing happens,” Greene said. “Even with The Dolphin Company’s bankruptcy and criminal investigation, that’s not enough to get these animals confiscated and removed to safe locations. How many animals have to die before the Miami Seaquarium is shut down once and for all? “
