Marineland of Florida
Encyclopedia
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
's first marine mammal park
Marine mammal park
A marine mammal park is a commercial theme park or aquarium where marine mammals such as dolphins, beluga whales and sea lions are kept within water tanks and displayed to the public in special shows. A marine mammal park is more elaborate than a dolphinarium, because it also features other marine...
s, is billed as "the world's first oceanarium
Oceanarium
An oceanarium can be either a marine mammal park, such as Marineland of Florida, or a large-scale aquarium, such as the Lisbon Oceanarium, presenting an ocean habitat with marine animals, especially large ocean dwellers such as sharks.- Marine mammal parks :...
". Marineland functions as an entertainment and swim
Swim
- Movement and sport in water :* Aquatic locomotion, animal movement through water* Human swimming, human movement through water* Swimming , the competitive sport of swimming- Media :* Swimming , a 2008 album by French Kicks...
-with-the-dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
s facility, and re-opened to the public on March 4, 2006 (charging the original 1938 admission price of one dollar).
On the first day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
of 2011, the park was purchased by the Georgia Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium
The Georgia Aquarium, located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, at Pemberton Place, is the world's largest aquarium with more than of marine and fresh water housing more than 120,000 animals of 500 different species...
for a reported 9.1 million dollars. The seller was Jim Jacoby
Jim Jacoby
James F. "Jim" Jacoby is founder, chairman and CEO of Jacoby Development, a land development company in Atlanta, Georgia.Jacoby was born in Miami, Florida in 1943. He served in the Naval Security Group, a U.S. Navy intelligence unit, from 1961 to 1969...
, an Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
developer
Land development
Land development refers to altering the landscape in any number of ways such as:* changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing...
and member of the Georgia Aquarium board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
, who bought the park in 2004 and redeveloped it.
History
Marineland was first conceived by W. Douglas Burden, Cornelius Vanderbilt WhitneyCornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was an American businessman, film producer, writer, and government official, as well as the owner of a leading stable of thoroughbred racehorses....
, Sherman Pratt and Ilya Tolstoy
Ilya Tolstoy
-Early life:Ilya was born at Yasnaya Polyana and spent most of his young life there, until the family took a house in Moscow in 1881. He received his early education at home; his mother taught him to read and write, first in Russian, and later in French and English, and his father taught him...
as an oceanarium that could be used to film marine life. A site was selected on the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
south of St. Augustine, eventually known as the town of Marineland
Marineland, Florida
Marineland is a town in both Flagler and St. Johns counties, in Florida, United States. The population was six at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is ten . Marineland is located south of St...
. The site of Marineland is within a 20000 acres (80.9 km²) grant given to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
barrister Levett
Levett
Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...
Blackborne in 1767. The well-connected Blackborne, grandson of Sir Richard Levett
Richard Levett
Sir Richard Levett , Sheriff, Alderman and Lord Mayor of London, was one of the first directors of the Bank of England, an adventurer with the London East India Company and the proprietor of the trading firm Sir Richard Levett & Company. He had homes at Kew and in London's Cripplegate, close by...
, Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
, never settled his grant (nor even visited Florida), and eventually Blackborne's plantation was regranted to John Graham, a Georgia Loyalist fleeing the Revolutionary War. Ultimately, the land that is today Marineland was broken up over the years into smaller parcels.
Financing and construction presented challenges as Marineland was the first attempt at capturing and sustaining sea creatures. These challenges were overcome. Construction and engineering was carried out Arthur Franklin Perry Co. of Jacksonville. On June 23, 1938, "Marine Studios" (the name "Marineland of Florida" would later be adopted) began operations with its main attraction as a bottlenose dolphin. Unexpectedly, over 20,000 tourists clogged Highway A1A
Florida State Road A1A
State Road A1A is a Florida State Road that runs mostly along the Atlantic Ocean, with sections from Key West at the southern tip of Florida, to Callahan, just south of Georgia. It is the main road through most oceanfront towns. SR A1A is designated the A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Highway, a...
to visit the new attraction. For many decades Marineland consisted of not only the oceanariums but several amenities including a motel (Marine Village Court, Marineland Motel and Quality Inn/Marineland); Dolphin Restaurant and Moby Dick Lounge; Periwinkle Snack Bar and Sandpiper Snack Bar; Marineland Marina; plus fruit shop and gift shop; and a pier at the north end of the facility. A Texaco service station was adjacent to the Periwinkle Snack Bar and Greyhound Bus Lines stopped regularly during its St. Augustine to Daytona Beach run.
The total property area consisted of 125 acres sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. Originally planned for the St. Augustine area, residents of that community did not look favorably on the attraction being located there; thus the new site south of Matanzas Inlet was chosen.
Having the grandson of Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
involved in the project helped Marineland become a very fashionable destination in its early days, prompting writers Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an American author who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie, also known as The...
, John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
, and Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
to visit Moby Dick's Bar located there. Ms. Rawlings was married to Norton Baskin who at one time (1950s/early 1960s) was the operator/manager of the Dolphin Restaurant/Moby Dick Lounge. The park's facilities were very popular with tourists and also used for numerous movies, including Creature from the Black Lagoon
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 monster horror film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Whit Bissell. The eponymous creature was played by Ben Chapman on land and Ricou Browning in underwater scenes...
(1954) and Revenge of the Creature
Revenge of the Creature
Revenge of the Creature is the first sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon. The film is notable for being the only 3-D film to be released in 1955; the only 3-D sequel to a 3-D film; and for being the first screen role for Clint Eastwood. The movie was released May 11, 1955, in the United States...
(1955). Trained dolphins became an additional attraction in the early 1950s as Marineland became one of Florida's major attractions, attracting over 900,000 visitors per year with peak attendance in the mid-1970s The opening of Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...
in 1971 giving a major boost to the attraction's annual attendance. However, Sea World's entry into the Florida market eventually had a very negative impact on Marineland from the late 1970s through the 2009. Many publications unfortunately note the peak attendance at 300,000 which is erroneous. The break-even admission point was 400,000 even during the 1950s.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney who was the major stockholder of the private company opted to sell the marine park in the mid-1980s to a group of St. Augustine businessmen. With declining attendance the norm, the group was unable to meet its loan payments and the attraction was again put on the market. Ownership change was the norm from that point.
Eventually, the maintenance demands of the old park became too costly for the real estate investment group who owned it at that time. The facility began to sink into disrepair as the owners desperately sought a buyer. Finally, through a convoluted deal involving junk bonds
High-yield debt
In finance, a high-yield bond is a bond that is rated below investment grade...
, the property was sold. The buyers planned to build time-share condominiums on most of the ocean hammock land but were unable to bring the plan to fruition. This effort resulted in bankruptcy for the buyers. In addition, the already-strapped oceanarium had been reconfigured as a non-profit foundation as part of the sale and was responsible for its own sustenance as well as repayment of the bond issue. Needed monies were not invested in repairs, and the shabby condition of the park offended even the most loyal fans. With no direct ownership, no funding, and the financial burden of bond interest payments, employees were left to cope with equipment failures, no marketing, loss of credit, bounced paychecks, government inspections and the custodianship of the marine mammals, fish and birds. During this era, many devoted individuals and businesses contributed materials and services to help employees keep the place going. In the end, the foundation repaid the bondholders pennies on the dollar, a large part of Marineland's dolphin population was sold off to Orlando, and the current owner came in and picked up the pieces.
Hurricanes Floyd
Hurricane Floyd
Hurricane Floyd was the sixth named storm, fourth hurricane, and third major hurricane in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. Floyd triggered the third largest evacuation in US history when 2.6 million coastal residents of five states were ordered from their homes as it approached...
and Irene
Hurricane Irene (1999)
Hurricane Irene was a hurricane that produced somewhat heavy damage across southern Florida during the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. The ninth tropical storm and the sixth hurricane of the season, Irene developed in the western Caribbean Sea on October 13 from a tropical wave. It moved northward,...
in 1999 forced the park to close for two months. In 2003, all of the park buildings west of Highway A1A were demolished leaving only the original structures along the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. In 2004, the park closed completely for renovations, and re-opened on March 4, 2006.
During the renovations the original 1938 Circular Oceanarium (400,000 gallons) and Rectangular Oceanarium (450,000 gallons) were demolished. The age of the Dolphin Show at Marineland is now over as the park reopened as a hands on educational facility. Future plans for the area include a condo development on former park lands. The rest of the old Marineland property wound up in the hands of Flagler County and now make up the River to the Sea Preserve one of the County's many parks.
With a gift from Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney of slightly more than 3 acres (1.2 ha) of land together his donation of about half of the total constructions costs, on January 30, 1974, the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
opened the Whitney Marine Laboratory adjacent to Marineland. This laboratory's purpose was the experimental study of marine animals but was separate from the lab that was once operated by Marineland. Marine Studios through its Research Facility contributed greatly to the understanding of porpoises from 1938 thanks to Arthur McBride, Forrest Woods and other marine biologists. The staff at Marineland was a "first responder" for hundreds of whale strandings along the southeastern Atlantic Coast during its existence.
Marineland had three bottlenose dolphins born at the newly constructed Dolphin Conservation center in July 2008. Two of them were males and one was female. The calves were named in November 2008.
In January 2011, Marineland was sold yet again and is currently being operated as a subsidiary of the Georgia Aquarium.