A civil judge denied the Miami-Dade County's request to immediately evict the Miami Seaquarium for overdue rent and ordered the conflicting parties to attend mediation at the end of the month.
The county attorneys had filed the motion for default judgment and immediate eviction, arguing that Dolphin Company, operator of the Seaquarium, did not pay the rent on time. However, the judge ruled in favor of the company and indicated that it should continue to pay the rent on the 15th of each month.
Despite this setback, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava's office stated in a statement that "the eviction process continues" and that the county "is considering the next steps." The lease contract is originally set to conclude in 2044.
On June 25, Miami-Dade filed a lawsuit for Dolphin Company to vacate the public lands on the city's waterfront.
The reasons for the eviction include accusations of deterioration of the facilities, operational failures, and inadequate care of dolphins, penguins, sea lions, and other species.
The county's decision to evict the company came after the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspected the park and reported violations of animal welfare and failures in facility maintenance.
In April, the county sent an eviction notice to the owners of the Miami Seaquarium after the deadline to vacate the property, set for April 21, expired.
For its part, Dolphin Company claims that the county's lawsuit is "unfounded and politically motivated," that all issues have already been resolved, and that this has been recognized by the USDA itself.
"The county knows that we have corrected the vast majority of violations that can be corrected. The others pertain to structures that are not even open to the public and are not located in public areas, so they are trying to claim violations on the property that simply do not exist or that cannot be fixed because they refuse to grant us building permits to fix anything," said a company lawyer to Local 10.
The parent company of the Seaquarium leases 38 acres of land to the county to establish the theme park, which was inaugurated in 1955 with views of Biscayne Bay and became famous in the 1960s when the television series Flipper was filmed there.
With nearly 1,000 animals and 148 workers, the facility has faced criticism from animal rights advocates.
In August 2023, the death of Lolita, a beloved orca who lived there for more than half a century in captivity, made news.
Lolita was in a pool that was inappropriate for her size and complexity, according to animal protection groups, who fought for years to free the orca from her tank at the Seaquarium.
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