MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – For the first time since Miami-Dade County told its tenant — Miami Seaquarium operator The Dolphin Company — that it needs to vacate the Virginia Key site by April 21 amid mounting animal welfare concerns, Local 10 News is getting a look inside.
Edwin Gonzalez, the company’s U.S. parks executive director, showed reporter Christina Vazquez around the park Friday.
“You are going to see some of the investments we have been making,” he said.
He showed improvements he said the company has been making to floating decks, cages and more.
“All of these decks over here that you see, all those floating decks, was about a $200,000 investment we made,” Gonzalez said.
He said the repair work underway takes time given the degree of disrepair the aging facility was in at the time The Dolphin Company took over the lease a little more than two years prior.
Take, for example, the whale bowl.
“The county has said that this is an unsafe structure,” Vazquez told Gonzalez.
“Correct,” Gonzalez said. “We have already requested a permit for demolition. It starts with fencing and from there we get the demolition permit and they knock it down.”
Gonzalez said the whale bowl was in a state of disrepair when the company acquired the facility.
“We ended up investing nearly $2 million in this whale bowl but when we came in, we had to put in a new water system, filtration system (when taking care of famed orca Lolita),” Gonzalez said. “You are going to see the famous whale bowl where Lolita was and you will notice it is old, it is closed, no one can go in because one of the concerns with Dade County is it is an unsafe structure.”
The county, citing U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection reports that document a series of repeat violations, is pressing forward in its lease termination process.
Miami-Dade Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales said if the company is still on the premises on April 21, the county will evict it.
“Folks can rest assured the commitment of the mayor and the administration to try to do right by the animals there and the community,” Morales said. “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 there but, most importantly, make sure the animals are properly taken care of whether there or somewhere else.”
Gonzalez said executives with the The Dolphin Company have been trying to meet with county officials to “show everything we are doing to fix the park.”
Self-described “dolphin defender” Ric O’Barry, a former trainer at the park, plans to hold a demonstration at the park in support of county leaders Sunday to celebrate Miami-Dade becoming “animal cruelty free.”
He said the industry has gotten “completely out of control.”
“It means a great deal to me to know that the Seaquarium is finally closing,” O’Barry said.
Gonzalez said the company is staying put.
“We are going to fight to stay because we love this place, we love the animals,” he said.
The Seaquarium plans to hold an Earth Day event on April 22 — one day after the day they are supposed to vacate the premises.
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