This eight part series utilizes over two years of extensive research to share the untold stories of four Florida dolphinariums.
THOUGH SHALL NOT MAKE PUBLIC FILMED IMAGES
I’ve never been able to get a clear answer on why USDA’s Animal Welfare division didn’t confiscate animals from the Miami Seaquarium, nor why it didn’t authorize the county to do so. There was one moment when the USDA threatened to confiscate four of the park’s animals – two dolphins, a bird, and a sea lion – but then the park euthanized the sea lion, named Bud, so no need to confiscate him.
Even more troubling is that the agency had multiple opportunities to revoke the park’s license. Here’s an internal USDA memo from Betty Goldentyer, Animal Welfare czar:
Not mentioned in Goldentyer’s memo is this email dated February 4, 2022, just three days after the pre-licensing inspection that condemned the killer whale tank. It is the first place we see the agency offering the option of keeping the tank’s occupants intact, as long as they were completely kept off exhibition. Remember, this is just three days after the inspection.
On February 8, Newsweek publishes a story stating: “The Miami Seaquarium confirmed on February 7 that 56-year-old Lolita had some abnormalities in her bloodwork as she began to feel ‘under the weather,’ the Palm Beach Post reported. The statement, which was attributed to head veterinarian at the park, Shelby Loos, said that despite her advanced age, she is steadily improving and feeling much better.” FOIA documents from this period include correspondence from the park to NOAA requesting necropsy guidelines.
That same day, February 8, Charles Vinick and Jeff Foster, on behalf of the Whale Sanctuary Project, send a letter to NOAA requesting immediate removal of the orca Tokitae from her tank.
On February 15, 2022 a representative of The Dolphin Company confirms that it has made its decision regarding the whale tank.
Three days later, Friends of Lolita is incorporated in Florida.
We wonder if the longstanding multi-decade relationship between Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Friends of Lolita/Friends of Toki board member Diana Reiss (former research partner of Whale Sanctuary Project founder Lori Marino) and USDA marine mammal inspector Laurie Gage played a role in the park’s partitioned license. We’ve been able to trace their close professional relationship back to the 1980s at the Marine Mammal Center near San Francisco and later to Marine World Africa USA.
Ironically, while the the whale tank was allowed to be excluded from the license for being off exhibit, another group of tanks at the park, the Pompanos, which at the time of licensing housed the manatee Romeo and the Pacific white-sided dolphins Loke and Eleo (both now deceased), was not removed from the license, despite being backstage.
The decision to keep Tokitae in the tank was done quickly. The Dolphin Company was made aware that she would not have any further protections under the Animal Welfare Act and must be kept completely off exhibition, expanding the definition of exhibition to include “posting any image of these animals on social media with the expectation of economic benefit.”
Surely, Whale Sanctuary Project/Friends of Lolita director Charles Vinick was aware of this, as it was mentioned in an authorization letter for the park’s license that was released publicly by the local CBS affiliate in March 2022.
This was reiterated in an email we recently acquired from Goldentyer to Vinick reguarding his request to use images of Tokitae during the group’s December 13, 2022 “Day of Listening.”
Yet, violations actually began before that.
REASON #46 WHY WHALE SANCTUARY PROJECT IS JUST LIKE MIAMI SEAQUARIUM: THEY BOTH ATTEMPTED TO CLEVERLY BYPASS THE PROHIBITION AND GOT AWAY WITH IT.
For the Seaquarium, the bypass included posting new photos of Tokitae on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instragram, with a disclaimer that the photos were the property of park staff and used with permission. These posts appeared adjacent to other social media posts advertising discounted packages and admission to the park. Whale Sanctuary Project, which as fiscal sponsor for Friends of Toki, was managing the latter’s funds at the time, published a June 2, 2022 blog post on its website about the expert veterinarians inspecting the whale. The featured image on the blog was of waves, and this image would appear as the thumbnail image on social media, but when the link was clicked, the following image appeared:
Images were published by the Lummi organization Sacred Sea. News reports of Tokitae filmed at the park with the permission of its owners by Channel 10 and the Miami Herald can easily be construed as marketing for the park and its partner organizations. Jim Irsay posted video on his personal Twitter account, while more than one documentary crew was on premises, with the full knowledge and permission of the park and Friends of Toki, filming the whale for planned documentaries intended for commercial distribution.
And then there was Friends of Toki, which began showcasing photos and videos of Tokitae months before her death. One could argue that Friends of Toki posted with no intention of economic gain since it was privately being financed by millionaires and billionaires.
And I would argue the following two points:
- In an interview published on March 30, 2023, David Phillips, a Whale Sanctuary Project board member and Director of the International Marine Mammal Project at Earth Island Institute (who himself is linked to Friends of Toki founder Pritam Singh through the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon, FL), stated: “Some big benefactors have stepped forward, but there will also be ways for individuals to contribute through the Friends of Toki and the Whale Sanctuary Project.“
- Note that in the above November 17 letter, Goldentyer states:
There is no mention of social media nor of economic gain. It is clear via this letter that the agency would consider any public exhibition of photos or video of the whale to be a violation of the park’s license and cause for its revocation.
Multiple media incidents occurred that should have set in motion the park losing its license and having to go through the process for a new one. Multiple media incidents occured that could have easily led to the confiscation and relocation of the park’s animals.
In the Summer of 2023, as multiple outlets were publishing photos and video of Tokitae, I reached out to USDA asking if an exemption had been made for the park, its owners, and its nonprofit partners.
On August 17, 2023, I received a response from the Animal Welfare division’s Public Information Officer:
APHIS cannot comment on this specific subject but I can tell you that Lolita is not covered by the Animal Welfare Act at this time.
The following day, Tokitae died in her condemned tank.
Her death was captured on video. It’ll likely be the one video of her that is never released.
