Part 1: Gulf World and Miami Seaquarium

In March 2025, families packed the stands at Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City Beach, Florida. Attendees eagerly waited for a bottlenose dolphin named Jett to soar into the air. Instead, horror unfolded. Jett miscalculated his leap in the algae-thick water, struck the shallow end of the pool headfirst, and fractured his skull, tragically dying in front of stunned onlookers.

For TideBreakers, a young activist group co-founded by documentarian Marketa Schusterova and consulted by former SeaWorld trainer Valerie Greene, Jett’s death was not only a complete failure of the marine entertainment industry but a small glimpse of the corruption that lies behind closed doors.

“How can you ask a dolphin to perform an aerial behavior when the pool is so green you can’t even see the bottom? That’s abuse,” Greene bluntly said. “Those trainers should never have been put in that position. That failure falls on the entire industry.”

Within weeks, TideBreakers’ undercover footage of Gulf World’s dolphins swimming in fetid, algae-choked tanks went viral. Public outrage mounted, local officials acted, and state and federal authorities raided the facility. By May, five dolphins—Gus, Turk, Nate, Jett, and Samira—were dead. On May 28, 2025, Gulf World closed its gates for good.

But for Greene and Schusterova, victory does not end with Gulf World’s closure; it is but the beginning of a larger battle facing cetacean captivity.

The Dolphin Company’s Collapse

Gulf World was owned by The Dolphin Company (TDC), the world’s largest chain of dolphinariums, which operates more than 30 parks worldwide, including four in Florida: Gulf World, Miami Seaquarium, Marineland, and Dolphin Connection. In February 2025, TDC filed for bankruptcy protection in Mexico, and in March, the United States, weeks after Jett’s death. The February filing in Mexico came days after Tradewinds, a Caribbean timeshare company who previously helped The Dolphin Company acquire marine parks, was granted a motion for certain TDC assets to be delivered to Florida from Delaware. Court filings revealed what activists had long suspected: dolphins and sea lions weren’t just star attractions-they were collateral.

According to Bloomberg, as of 2023 The Dolphin Company held 295 dolphins, 51 sea lions, and 18 manatees and seals, valued at over $100 million. Bankruptcy filings treated these animals as “assets” to be sold to satisfy creditors.

“The most shocking part was seeing animals listed like inventory in a bankruptcy case,” Schusterova said. “That’s the reality of this industry- dolphins reduced to dollar signs.”

The bankruptcy’s automatic stay also froze confiscation efforts. Even after state officials deemed conditions at Gulf World unsafe, animals could not be removed without navigating complex bankruptcy proceedings. In June, surviving dolphins were finally relocated—but not to sanctuaries. Instead, they were shipped to other Dolphin Company parks with similarly deplorable records.

“It’s unacceptable,” Greene said. “We shut down Gulf World, only to see the dolphins moved to other deplorable roadside attractions owned by the same company that abused them—except for the rough-toothed dolphins, who went to the Clearwater Aquarium. That’s not good enough.”

The Lesser of Two Evils

“The truth is there are no functioning dolphin sanctuaries in North America right now,” Schusterova admitted. “So activists demand freedom, but where can the animals go? That gap is killing them.”

The result is dolphins being shuffled between scandalous facilities because there is nowhere else for them to go. Releasing dolphins and whales directly from aquariums back into the ocean isn’t a realistic option for most individuals in captivity. Many dolphins in U.S. facilities have been bred in tanks for generations. They have never learned to hunt, migrate, or navigate the complex social structures of wild pods. Schusterova explained, “We still have animals being born in captivity. That problem may last for another 50 years.”

Decades of shows and training mean these animals often look to humans for food and stimulation. Greene noted that when given free access, captive dolphins often stay in the smallest pools because that’s what they know. With Keiko (the “Free Willy” orca), even after being released from a sea pen to the ocean, he repeatedly sought out humans for company and food.

That’s why TideBreakers and others emphasize the need for sea pen sanctuaries—protected bays where dolphins can live in more natural waters, without performing, but still receive human care. Greene admitted, “Sanctuary is still captivity, but it’s a more humane alternative. These animals will always need humans- but they deserve dignity.”

Unfortunately, sanctuaries require millions of dollars, political will, and cooperation from the very industry being dismantled. Until then, activists like TideBreakers are stuck in triage mode: moving animals from the worst tanks to slightly less abusive ones, hoping sanctuaries become a reality before more die.

Schusterova noted, “We’re criticized a lot for this. People ask ‘what kind of activists are you? Moving them from facility to facility is not a victory.” Schusterova’s response: “If we get them from a facility where they’re dying at a rate of five dolphins in a matter of several months, to somewhere they can actually live in healthy conditions and wait for when a sanctuary becomes available–that is a victory to me. I’d rather have animals alive in a captive facility, ready to be moved to a sanctuary, than dead animals and empty sanctuaries. A lot of anti-captivity groups give the public an unreal expectation that there are sanctuaries waiting for these animals to go to, and that simply is not the case–there are no sanctuaries for dolphins in North America.”

Miami Seaquarium: A Parallel Disaster

If Gulf World is the industry’s latest disgrace, Miami Seaquarium is its most infamous. Opened in 1955, the Seaquarium housed Lolita (Tokitae), a killer whale captured in 1970 and confined for over 50 years in what federal regulators later admitted was an illegally small, leaking tank.

In 2023, The Dolphin Company convinced the public that Lolita would retire to a sanctuary that ultimately never existed. Instead, the USDA quietly removed her from federal oversight. Lolita died that summer in crumbling facilities, malnourished and overworked.

“They starved her, pumped sewage water into her tank, and called it conservation,” Greene said bitterly. “That whale deserved better than a miserable death in filth.”

Just weeks after TideBreakers warned that Miami Seaquarium’s future hinged on politics and corruption, a major shift began. In late September, Miami developer David Martin, CEO of Terra, filed paperwork in bankruptcy court to take over the lease of the iconic but troubled park.

Martin envisions a “Miami Seaquarium 2.0” — a modern aquarium without marine mammals or circus-style performances. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Greene announced with caution. “The Miami Seaquarium has been bailed out by the County on numerous occasions and the fact that there’s consideration for another aquarium- even without marine mammals- is an insult to all of the animals who have died at the Seaquarium and to those who have protested the conditions for decades.” Greene added that several marine animals other than mammals have been tortured at the park, including fish, sharks, rays, and turtles.

The same question remains: what will happen to the dolphins who currently reside at Miami Seaquarium? Unfortunately, only time will tell, which TideBreakers argue is too long a wait.

Regulators Passing the Buck

Both Gulf World and Miami Seaquarium illustrate a larger systemic failure: no U.S. agency is truly accountable for captive dolphins and whales. While the USDA licenses facilities under the Animal Welfare Act, they rarely do more than document violations. In addition, NOAA, which enforces the Marine Mammal Protection Act, claims it has no jurisdiction over animals in public display.

When Gulf World’s conditions spiraled, NOAA pointed to USDA and USDA failed to act. Nothing happened until public outrage forced the issue. Greene noted, “I cannot speak highly enough about how Panama City Beach residents and officials handled that situation, because they brought it to a conclusion within a matter of months.”

Schusterova added, “We started it, but the community immediately responded. They started organizing protests. The mayor reached out to TideBreakers and we were talking with all the local authorities. If that would happen in every location where The Dolphin Company has those facilities, I think that would be major help to shut it down, because they were not tolerating that in Panama City Beach.”

TideBreakers is now petitioning Congress for an oversight hearing into how Gulf World spiraled unchecked. “Florida has one of the strongest animal cruelty statutes in the country,” Greene noted. “What happened at Gulf World and Miami Seaquarium is illegal under state law. The problem is no one’s enforcing it.”

The collapse of Gulf World should have been a turning point for the aquarium industry, yet other Dolphin Company facilities continue to operate under the same broken system. TideBreakers’ petition for a congressional oversight hearing into the failures of the USDA, NOAA, and The Dolphin Company can be found at https://c.org/hQK5zqXJy8. Tidebreakers plan on pleading with Congress to intervene at Miami Seaquarium until the conclusion of the criminal investigation and ongoing bankruptcy.