Miami Seaquarium Opens on Biscayne Bay

September 24, 1955 — A new marine attraction opens on Virginia Key.

By Wm. E. McMullen II

On September 24, 1955, the Miami Seaquarium opened on Virginia Key beside Biscayne Bay.

Florida Memory identifies Fred D. Coppock and Captain W. B. Gray with the attraction's opening. Its arrival belonged to a Florida tourism landscape very different from the one that would emerge after Walt Disney World opened sixteen years later.

Florida Before the Theme-Park Era

Mid-century visitors encountered roadside attractions, beaches, gardens, wildlife exhibits and marine attractions spread across the state. The Seaquarium joined that tradition while using South Florida's tropical setting and marine environment as central parts of its identity.

A Changing View of Marine Attractions

Mid-twentieth-century marine-mammal shows were widely promoted as entertainment and educational attractions. In later decades, public debate increasingly focused on animal welfare, captivity and the appropriate treatment of dolphins and other marine mammals.

Those later debates should not be projected backward as though visitors in 1955 understood the attraction through today's assumptions. But they are part of the institution's historical legacy and show how Florida tourism and public attitudes toward wildlife evolved.

Sources for Additional Reading

• Florida Memory — Aerial view of Miami Seaquarium, PC14667
• Florida Memory — Miami Seaquarium postcard