Marineland Saved From Developers St. Augustine

Marineland is not closing, it’s not turning into condos, and it’s staying what it’s always been, a historic coastal landmark dedicated to marine life and conservation.

 

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved and finalized the $7.1 million purchase made by a team of dolphin experts that beat out a Texas developer that had planned to redevelop the site.

 

Opened on June 13, 1938 as Marine Studios with a crowd of 30,000 in attendance ,  Marineland was the world’s first oceanarium.  Its founders: W. Douglas Burden, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and Count Ilya Andreyevich brought a variety of known figures to visit the facility, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Florida writer. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Tarzan’s Johnny Weissmiller.

 

The original goal was to create an underwater studio for filming marine life and movies. The first film shot there was Marine Circus in 1939 and then The Sea Around Us in 1953.   Productions really began to take off when The Creature from the Black Lagoon was shot there in 1954 and then its sequel Revenge of the Creature in 1955.

 

From 1958–1961 the popular television series  SEA HUNT with Lloyd Bridges was produced there.

 

One of their star attractions was Nellie, a famous bottlenose dolphin born at Marineland in 1953 and was the oldest dolphin in captivity when she died at age sixty one in 2014. 

 

Today, Marineland is home to 17 dolphins and over 1200 animals. 

 

Admission is only $20, but if you would like to swim with the dolphins, that’s a $170. 

 

Have some fin fun off Route 1.