City on the Cliff
Once upon a time, some people really liked creatures from the sea. The people decided that these creatures lived too far away and that it would be nicer if they lived nearby, where they could all visit each other whenever they wanted. These people decided they would build Marineland Pacific on a cliff overlooking the sea in Palos Verdes, CA. It was a picturesque location, whose cove-ridden coastline once gave shelter to Spanish and Portuguese sailing ships -- pirates and whalers mostly.When Marineland opened its doors in 1954. At that time, it was the largest Oceanarium in the world. Its exhibits housed animals from all over the world, changing on a semi-weekly basis. Everything from dolphins to walruses to sea otters had homes there and it pioneered a swim through aquarium called the Baja Reef.
Almost as noteworthy as its existence was the way that Marineland closed. In 1986, it was purchased by Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, who also owned Sea World. At the time of the sale, papers were full of promises that the park would not be closed, nor would any of its occupants be moved. However, in January of 1987, employees showed up for work to find Marineland gated and padlocked. HBJ released a statement claiming that the location was unstable -- the park was falling off of the palisade and had to be closed for the sake of both animals and workers. Now, sites that mention the incident say that HBJ only closed the park because it was financially expediant to do so. The animals were transferred to other parks, or simply released with no knowledge of how to survive in the wild.
In the mid-nineties, there was some talk of building a resort on the Marineland site, though that seems to have faded. Like so many landmarks from mid-century Los Angeles, Marineland exists in limbo -- closed to the public, it is used for filming, most recently, it has appeared in Fear Factor.
Marineland still holds a firm place in the hearts of many as the first place they saw a manta ray or an anenome . In 2003, the Marineland of the Pacific Historical Society was founded to preserve its memory.
posted by kuaptic. @ 3:37 PM
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