When did Marineland in Los Angeles close?

On January 29, 1987, nine days after it transferred the park’s star attractions, killer whales Orky and Corky to SeaWorld, HBJ announced that Marineland would be closed permanently on March 1. The announcement was greeted with shock and anger from those who worked at the park and its countless fans across Southland.

Why did Marineland in California close?

HBJ claimed that it would cost too much money to make necessary repairs for the 33-year-old park to be a viable attraction. It also added that it would be even more difficult to turn a profit without Orky and Corky, which had just shipped out to SeaWorld.

On February 11, HBJ called all employees to the Sea Area where a representative — flanked by beefy security guards — told them the horrible news, Marineland would be closed permanently at 5 pm that day. HBJ had once again moved the goalposts and broke a promise. The reason they gave for the premature closure was that the park had allegedly received three bomb threats. The Lomita Sheriff’s substation, whose jurisdiction includes Marineland, told the LA Times the police received no notice of a bomb threat at Marineland that week.

“It was heartbreaking because of the way it was done more than anything else. The whales were moved at night. You felt like you lost a close family member,” Jim Roope, the park’s Live Entertainment Director form 1980 to 1984, told the podcast. “When Marineland closed, the way it was done was a murder. That’s what it felt like.”

(Marineland in June 1987, 4 months after its closure.)

HBJ’s brazen scheme to ruin Marineland wouldn’t go unpunished. When your bread and butter is publishing books for schools, it’s probably not a great idea to shut down an educational institution in the second-largest market in America. Over the next few weeks, there were calls to ban HBJ’s books in local schools.

After Marineland’s closure, a few Marinelanders remained at the park with the emotionally distraught job of caring for the remaining animals and shipping them off to various SeaWorld parks. Marineland trainer Joanne Hay warned SeaWorld officials that Sundance, a subdominant dolphin, and one of the park’s most prominent performers, should not be put in a tank with other male bottle-nose dolphins as he would not be able to defend himself.

The day after his move to SeaWorld, Sundance died of a fractured skull and cerebral hemorrhage after another male attacked him in the tank. Four days later, Echo, a female dolphin who had recently given birth, died at SeaWorld.

Within a year, 12 of the Marineland animals — five dolphins, five sea lions, and two seals — were dead, some within weeks of the transfer, according to federal marine-mammal inventory reports.

On May 14, 1987, HBJ washed its hands of the controversy by selling the Marineland property to Arizona developer James Monaghan for $24.5 million.