SeaOtterHQ
Well-Known Member
Eleo, the 6 year old male pacific white sided dolphin transferred from the Miami Seaquarium in August of last year has passed away.
So sad… every death in this population is significant. Hearts out to his caretakers. I wouldn’t be surprised if his death ends up being linked to his time at MSQ.
Seems like a safe assumption. The Miami Seaquarium is genuinely awful:
According to the USDA, Miami Seaquarium "failed to recognize veterinary authority" when Elelo the Pacific white-sided dolphin was treated for "foreign body ingestion" earlier this year.
On January 3, after Elelo went under treatment for foreign body ingestion, the attending veterinarian (AV) determined that his enclosure was no longer suitable for the animal and recommended he be transferred to another facility. However, that transfer didn't happen at the time of inspection, according to the USDA.
Later on July 6, after noting continued foreign body ingestion by Elelo, the AV determined that Miami Seaquarium did not have the equipment to keep the animal in its current facility and had to undergo a "significant amount of maintenance" and that there was a "repeat risk of foreign body ingestion." According to the USDA, the AV stated that she contacted the administration to try and expedite the process and planned to relocate Elelo to another facility as mentioned earlier.
According to the USDA, Miami Seaquarium failed to maintain two different marine animal enclosures. The first of which was Elelo's enclosure, which led the dolphin to ingest several objects, including a plastic zip-tie, a broken piece of plastic and what was described to be a "large piece of cement, which were all found during his January 3 gastroscopy. According to the USDA, the zip-tie was used to secure pool fencing, the plastic was likely from a target pole and divers noted that the bottom of the pool had a layer of "broken, flaking cement."
During the second procedure on July 5, Elelo was made to regurgitate "sand and glass filtration media," according to the USDA.
"Enclosures that fall into states of disrepair may no longer be able to safely contain the animals and may produce foreign material which could be ingested and become injurious to the animals," the report stated.
USDA cites Miami Seaquarium for insufficient animal care, staffing problems; report infuriates local leaders, PETA
RIP Elelo.


