Fighting eviction, Seaquarium accuses Miami-Dade County of a ‘fishy’ land grab

With ticket sales cratering during its eviction fight with its government landlord, the Miami Seaquarium is accusing Miami-Dade County of wanting to clear out the park to make way for another occupant.

“Let’s call a spade a spade. The county was contacted by people about the land and that’s what this is all about,” Hilton Napoleon II, the Seaquarium’s lawyer, said in a Wednesday press conference at the waterfront theme park on Miami’s Virginia Key. “It is not about the animals. It is not about the facilities. Something smells fishy.”

READ MORE: Miami-Dade County officially files to evict Seaquarium

Napoleon offered no evidence to back up his claim as the Seaquarium fights an eviction lawsuit by Miami-Dade that rests on allegations of substandard care of the park’s animals and shoddy conditions at a facility on land it rents from the county.

But the public broadside aimed at Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and her administration shows the Seaquarium trying to go on offense a day after Miami-Dade filed the eviction lawsuit attempting to force the park to shut down and clear out of a spot it has occupied since the 1950s.

“We are not going to surrender this lease,” Napoleon said. “We haven’t done anything wrong. And we’re not going to let the county strong arm us out of it.”

Levine Cava’s office issued a statement Wednesday that said in part: “We continue to believe that the grounds for the termination of the lease are still present, and the reasons to move forward with the eviction process have been thoroughly explained and documented” in this week’s lawsuit.

Miami-Dade’s lawsuit asks a judge to rule that the Seaquarium and its parent, the Mexico-based Dolphin Company, violated a county lease that’s been in place since 2022, when the old operator sold its business to the Dolphin Company.

Negotiated with the Levine Cava administration, the new lease added provisions giving the county more oversight over animal care at the park, which was once home to the Flipper television series and a target of animal-rights activists for the captivity conditions of a star attraction, Lolita the orca.

Levine Cava celebrated the new ownership in 2022 for an agreement to end Lolita’s performances and a plan to move her to an open-water sanctuary once the logistics and federal clearances were in place for the transfer. The orca died in August at the Seaquarium in the early phase of that relocation plan, and the relationship between the county and the park publicly soured in the weeks that followed.

In December, the Levine Cava administration notified the Seaquarium that its lease was in jeopardy over critical inspection reports from federal animal regulators and over code violations from county building inspectors. In March, the county delivered a formal eviction notice. On Tuesday, Miami-Dade launched eviction proceedings in circuit court, the final step before a judge can decide whether the Seaquarium violated its lease and must vacate.

“Our ultimate priority has always been to ensure the safety and well-being of the hundreds of animals in the Seaquarium’s care, and it’s critical that we proceed in a manner that best protects them,” read a joint statement from Levine Cava and Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, whose district includes Virginia Key.

With Miami-Dade publicly trying to oust the Seaquarium from its county-owned site, the question of who might get to control the land next has been a natural topic in county circles. In media appearances, Levine Cava and Regalado have both said it’s too early to speculate on the future of the land.

The county eviction suit cites multiple federal findings of problems with the Seaquarium’s care of a menagerie that includes dolphins, sea lions, exotic birds and manatees. Inspectors also faulted the Seaquarium for inadequate staffing of its veterinarian staff.

“The facility continues to have an inadequate number of trained employees in the Veterinary Care department,” read a report at the end of 2023 that was included in the lawsuit. “Currently a single veterinarian is employed to care for the 46 marine mammals, 50 birds, and hundreds of fish, sharks and rays housed at the facility.”

Seaquarium administrators said Wednesday the park still has one veterinarian on payroll but that it has enough veterinarian technicians to provide adequate care for its animals.

The park also accused the county of publicizing areas of concern cited by federal inspectors while ignoring the Seaquarium’s subsequent actions that cure the potential violations. Napoleon showed reporters an April 30 report from federal inspectors that stated there were “no non-compliant items identified during this inspection.”

“When the county suggests that the Miami Seaquarium is some place that’s derelict in their duties, that’s completely untrue,” he said.

Edwin Gonzalez, executive director of the Dolphin Company, said the public fight with Miami-Dade has led many people to mistakenly think the Seaquarium has closed. Sales are down about 40% this year, he said. The Miami Herald reported sales were down roughly 30% at the start of 2024, based on revenue reports the Seaquarium files with Miami-Dade as part of its rent payments.

“You have Levine Cava saying, ‘We’re closing you down,’” Gonzalez said. “Well, we’re not closed. We’re still open. We still have a lot of loyal followers.”