New chair at Visit Florida has killer whale history
By Paul Brinkmann
Jun 16, 2014 | 10:23 AM
The new chairman at Visit Florida is no stranger to one of the state's thorniest tourism controversies: killer whale captivity.
Andrew Hertz, president and general manager of the Miami Seaquarium, will take over as chair of the state's official tourism marketing agency on July 1.
Hertz's family owned the Miami Seaquarium tourist attraction until recently. The family had faced petitions and calls from animal rights advocates to release its star attraction, Lolita the killer whale. According to Change.org, Lolita is the oldest killer whale in captivity and the Miami Seaquarium has the smallest tank for a captive killer whale in North America.
SeaWorld in the Orlando area has also faced controversy over captive killer whales, including the documentary 'Blackfish' released last year that chronicled the 2010 death of trainer Dawn Brancheau. SeaWorld has pushed back against the harsh portrait painted by the documentary, emphasizing instead that the theme park is educating people about the marine animals.
Visit Florida is a not-for-profit corporation created as a public/private partnership by the Florida Legislature in 1996. It received a record amount of state funding this year, $74 million.
According to media reports, the Hertz family sold the Seaquarium a few months ago to California-based Palace Entertainment, a subsidiary of Spanish theme park operator Parques Reunidos. The Broward Bulldog cited anonymous sources in reporting a $30 million price for the attraction; Hertz told The Miami Herald that was inaccurate, but didn't say what the accurate price was.
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