Miami Seaquarium, Oceanarium in Virginia Key, Miami, United States.
Miami Seaquarium was a 38-acre (15 ha) oceanarium on Virginia Key in Biscayne Bay, near downtown Miami. Its pools and tanks held fish, sharks, sea turtles, manatees, birds and reptiles, with show venues including the Golden Dome Sea Lion Show, Top Deck Dolphin Show, Flipper Show and Killer Whale Show. It closed on October 12, 2025, after 70 years.
Fred D. Coppock and Captain W. B. Gray founded the Miami Seaquarium, which opened in 1955 as the second marine-life attraction in Florida and the largest in the world at the time. The first orca, Hugo, arrived in 1968 and died in 1980; Lolita, captured in Penn Cove in 1970, was the park's last orca until her death in 2023. The Dolphin Company took over in 2022, and the facility closed on October 12, 2025, after 70 years.
Between 1963 and 1967, this facility served as the filming location for eighty-eight episodes of the television series Flipper. The connection to the show still shapes how many visitors perceive the place, recalling the beloved series.
The site sits on Virginia Key in Biscayne Bay, near downtown Miami, and covers 38 acres (15 ha). Exhibits were grouped around pools such as the Golden Dome Sea Lion Show, Top Deck Dolphin Show, Flipper Show and Killer Whale Show, with the Manatee Exhibit, Shark Channel, Tropical Wings and Crocodile Flats elsewhere in the park. Much of the route was outdoors, so sun protection was advisable. The park closed on October 12, 2025.
A 31-foot (9.5-meter) oculus lens at the bottom of the Gulf Stream Aquarium allows visitors to watch sharks swimming directly overhead. This perspective from below offers an unusual vantage point on the movements of the animals in the water.
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