A new bankruptcy court document is outlining the proposed transfer locations for the animals at Miami Seaquarium as a new company is set to take over the lease of the property and make major changes.
The court document filed Nov. 20 details where the dozens of marine mammals, birds, reptiles and other animals could be sent amid the park’s transfer.
Last month, a bankruptcy judge approved the $22.5 million sale of the Seaquarium’s lease to Terra, a South Florida real estate development company.
Miami-Dade County, which owns the 38-acre parcel and first leased it in 1954 to a company that created the Seaquarium, still must approve the transfer of the lease to Terra before the deal can close.
The county filed an eviction lawsuit against the current owners of the Seaquarium, The Dolphin Company, in June 2024, alleging the current state of the facility and its impact on the marine life there violated the terms of the lease.
The animals transfers include:
1 bottlenose dolphin, Noelani, to Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago
27 American flamingoes to Nova Wild LLC, a nonprofit zoo in Virginia
11 African penguins to Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Goddard, Kansas
1 Harbor Seal named Flounder to the Seattle Aquarium
2 Argentine black and white Tegu, 1 bearded dragon, 1 blue tongued skink, 1 ball python, and 1 uromastyx to Zoo Miami
4 bottlenose dolphins to Dolphin Life Inc., a dolphin rescue center in Key Largo
2 sea lions, 3 harbor seals and 2 dolphins to Dolphin Research Center, a nonprofit research center in Grassy Key
3 harbor seals, 9 sea lions to Sea Lion Splash LLC, a traveling trained sea lion show
4 bottlenose dolphins to Indianapolis Zoological Society
One of the transfers, to Sea Lion Splash, doesn’t sit well with at least one activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
“The Dolphin Company is as bankrupt morally as it is financially, as after years of subjecting the animals in its clutches to a life of deprivation and misery, it now plans to extend their suffering indefinitely by shipping animals off to a seedy traveling show where they’ll be forced to perform circus-style tricks and treated as nothing more than props for photo ops,” PETA said in a statement Monday. “These animals have been through hell, and PETA is pleading for them to finally be allowed some semblance of a normal life at a reputable facility.”
Terra had previously announced that the Seaquarium would no longer house marine mammals and would instead focus on marine life education and preservation.