Toki’s story: Animal abuse, the whale sanctuary that never was

The first time I saw Toki, the killer whale, was on a visit to the Miami Seaquarium in 2005 when I was applying for jobs to become an animal trainer (I ended up working at SeaWorld from 2005-2016). I was in awe of Toki’s sweet disposition and seemingly endless energy as she jumped sky high in her tiny tank. Toki had the distinction of living in the smallest tank in the world for a killer whale, without another of her own species. As I leaned over the glass, I knew that Toki would change my life. I had no idea that I’d be fighting for hers almost 20 years later. There were efforts to relocate Toki for decades, but it never happened.

In 2023, Toki was the oldest killer whale in captivity at 57, and she had some health struggles that garnered national attention. In March of 2023, a new plan to release Toki to a sanctuary in Washington was announced in a flashy press conference. I was skeptical. No one had been able to move Toki out of the Seaquarium in 53 years. It was too good to be true.

Toki was dead five months later. Despite all of the fuss about a sanctuary for Toki, there was never even so much as a permit obtained to move her. Nor was there a sanctuary.

The reality was the Seaquarium had new owners, The Dolphin Company, and their star attraction, Toki, was deathly ill. If that weren’t bad enough, Miami-Dade County condemned the stadium surrounding Toki which made it impossible for her to do shows. Then, Toki’s tank did not pass a USDA inspection required for The Dolphin Company to take over the Seaquarium. Rather than fixing the tank or moving her to SeaWorld, her new owners announced Toki’s retirement and acted as though there was a sanctuary for her to go, while quietly removing her legal protections.

The USDA regulates marine mammals like Toki and has documented gruesome conditions at the Seaquarium for years. Previous USDA reports documented starving Toki, feeding her rotten fish, and forcing her to perform with injuries. Despite complaints over the size of Toki’s tank, for decades the USDA maintained that it met the legal requirements — up until February of 2022. Then, in an unpublished document, the USDA finally admitted that Toki’s tank was too small and would not pass inspection. The report also noted that the 53-year-old tank was leaking and in desperate need of repairs.

Nevertheless, in March of 2022, The Dolphin Company was granted a license for the Seaquarium, with an unprecedented exception: Toki’s tank was removed from USDA oversight. This left Toki and the Pacific white-sided dolphin that lived with her, Li’i, no federal protection. By removing their responsibility to oversee Toki and Li’i, the USDA paved the way for the big lie that Toki was going to a sanctuary.

While sanctuaries are idealized as a solution for captive whales, none currently exists in the United States. Since 2016, the Whale Sanctuary Project has collected millions in donations promising a sanctuary, despite not having one. The Whale Sanctuary Project, and their sister organization Friends of Toki, allowed Toki to stay in horrific conditions while collecting donations for their nonexistent sanctuary.

The situation at the Seaquarium proved deadly for Toki. The famous whale died after a watertight bulkhead cracked in her tank during a medical procedure. Toki’s dead body was craned out of the Seaquarium in a chaotic spectacle for all to see. What happened to Toki was one of the most publicly visible and disgraceful cases of animal abuse in the United States sanctioned by the agency tasked with protecting her.

After public outrage, Li’i was moved to SeaWorld San Antonio a month after Toki’s death. The Seaquarium must be shut down and the animals moved to the safety of facilities not owned or controlled by The Dolphin Company. They can’t be moved to sanctuaries that don’t exist. The Whale Sanctuary Project exploited Toki just as much as The Dolphin Company. I will forever be haunted by the tragic life and death of Toki. She deserved better. Instead the people who cared about her were deceived, and corruption and greed left Toki to die in a crumbling, illegal, cesspool.

With Toki gone, there are 18 killer whales left in the United States, all of them owned by SeaWorld. While SeaWorld may look like paradise compared to the Miami Seaquarium, its tanks are outdated and full of chipping paint. For the 18 whales that are left, we owe it to them to do better than crumbling tanks or fake sanctuaries.

Valerie Greene is a former animal trainer at SeaWorld Orlando and graduate of Barry University’s Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law.