Confession # 3: I Miss Marineland

I've just never had much interest in SeaWorld.

Perhaps that's because I grew up going to Marineland
... the first aquarium for 'monsters of the deep', a place my family loved and visited often.

The original Oceanarium opened in 1938, south of St Augustine, FL and was called Marine Studios ...

and featured:

the circular tank where the bottlenose dolphins would leap clear out of the water to pluck a fish from the feeder's hand;

the rectangular tank with sharks, sawfish, barracuda and sting rays, swimming right in front of your face;

divers, like something out of '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea',
walking on the floor of the tanks, feeding the sharks by hand;

and ... the educated porpoises - Splash and Algae who performed in the original dolphin Stadium.


This was great entertainment back in the 1950s.

There was no place else on Earth like it.


Marineland still exists today, though greatly changed.

The rectangular and circular tanks have been demolished, as have the Dolphin Restaurant, the Periwinkle Cafe and the Marineland Motor Lodge.

Dolphin Restaurant - THEN

Dolphin Restaurant - NOW

Rectangular Tank- demolished

Circular tank-demolished

Now it is all about dolphins and offers a variety of educational programs, including a dolphin trainer camp, as well as 3 summer camps.



More photos and history may be found here.