The Miami-Dade commission has served eviction papers to the Dolphin Company, the owners of the Miami Seaquarium, after the company presided over severe neglect and poor conditions for animals in their care for many years. The Miami-Dade commission has ordered the Dolphin Company to vacate the premises by the 21^st of April 2024. The commission’s letter cited violations of the lease agreement which included “not just a default, but a complete disregard for the safety of the animals housed on the premises.”

The history of the park is one of sadness, neglect, cruelty and enslavement for animals. The park’s history as an amenity for humans on the other hand, is one in which it enriched a private company and in the park’s earlier years was the third largest contributor to Miami-Dade County’s revenue through lease and tax payments.

The park is behind at least $180,000 in rent, which is one reason for the Miami-Dade commission’s decision. The decision was also motivated by the park’s numerous USDA violations and the loss of its Humane Society of America certification. Animal rights organizations have spoken out against the facility for years, in some cases managing to rescue animals, such as a pair of manatees, Romeo and Juliet. At least 120 dolphins and whales have died in captivity at the park. A dolphin named Sundance recently died shortly after a USDA inspection, where it was noted that the dolphin had “signs of gastric distress.” Federal inspections showed that the park’s infrastructure was deteriorating. A dolphin was found with a two-inch nail in its throat. Another dolphin was found with a broken metal bolt in its mouth.

One of the park’s major problems was that it couldn’t keep staff. Multiple staff resigned at the conditions of the park, and some alleged retaliation when they tried to speak up against the conditions. Due to money problems and difficulty retaining staff, the park didn’t have enough veterinarians to attend to the animals. The veterinary lab lacked basic tools and the animals were denied surgery, including a sea lion with eye pain, who stopped eating. One of the park’s animals, an Orca named Tokitae, gained recognition for all the wrong reasons, because the tank she was forced to live in was the nation’s smallest tank. Since coming to the world’s attention, Toki, also known as Lolita, has died.

Why did it take so long for the neglect to be put to an end? There is a bureaucratic process that has to happen to hold such facilities accountable. The park was known to be an unhealthy and cruel place for animals to live for decades. Attention wasn’t focused on the park soon enough because parks like these were for many years deemed to be acceptable entertainment and education for humans. The roles of animals at these parks, who are forced to perform for humans, and who are kept in restrictive conditions and separate from family members, were not questioned. It’s now time to question the rationale for keeping animals in these facilities. There may be some conservation reasons for keeping some species of animals captive, but even then, keeping animals in captivity, where they can be exploited, should be viewed with public skepticism and treated as a last resort.

In an exciting breakthrough for research in animal communication, the SETI institute managed to
have the first ever conversation with a humpbacked whale. The SETI institute began as a NASA
research program to understand and search for life beyond earth. The Whale-SETI team is using the
mathematics of information theory to understand terrestrial, non-human communication as a way
to develop filters to apply to any communication with extraterrestrial life.

Humpback whales are social and intelligent creatures who make tools and communicate with songs
and social calls. The Whale-SETI team has been studying humpback whale communication, which
include “contact calls” that whales use to communicate their presence to other whales. The team of
scientists from the SETI Institute, UC Davis and the Alaska Whale Foundation played the contact calls
into the sea via an underwater speaker, and a humpback whale named Twain approached and
circled the team’s boat while responding in a style that matched the original contact signal. The
researchers managed to have a 20 minute conversation with Twain. It is the first known
“conversation” between humans and humpback whales. Humpback whales also display non-audio
communicative behavior when they blow bubble rings in the presence of humans.

Whale SETI may be viewed as a springboard for communicating with extraterrestrial life. However
communication with animals could have more immediate benefits for animals in our world, right
now. Whales are one of the marine creatures who are profoundly affected by human activity. Whale song is disrupted by the noise of ships. If we can communicate with non-human animals our decision making should consider them as equal participants.

Humans have erroneously viewed human communication as synonymous with superior intelligence.
Without the ability to communicate with other animals and with a so-called superior intelligence
human activity has rampaged throughout animal habitats without the consent of animals. Every step
towards understanding animal intelligence and communication provides further evidence that these
assumptions are wrong. Scientific knowledge should not dictate our respect for non-human animals,
however scientific discovery can provide a basis for progressive animal rights policy and zero
tolerance for cruelty towards non-human lives.