Sea World is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, and theme park located on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It offers attractions such as rides and animal exhibits and promotes conservation through education and the rescue and rehabilitation of sick, injured or orphaned wildlife. The park is commercially linked to Warner Bros. Movie World and Wet'n'Wild Gold Coast as part of the theme park division of Village Roadshow. The park has no affiliation with an American park chain of a similar name.
Marineland of the Pacific was a public oceanarium and tourist attraction located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula coast in Los Angeles County, California. Architect William Pereira designed the main structure. It was also known as Hanna-Barbera's Marineland during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Marineland operated from 1954 until 1987, when it was purchased by the owners of SeaWorld San Diego. The new owners moved the popular killer whales and other animals to their San Diego facility and abruptly closed Marineland.
A dolphinarium is an aquarium for dolphins. The dolphins are usually kept in a pool, though occasionally they may be kept in pens in the open sea, either for research or public performances. Some dolphinariums consist of one pool where dolphins perform for the public, others are part of larger parks, such as marine mammal parks, zoos or theme parks, with other animals and attractions as well.
Marineland of Florida, one of Florida's first marine mammal parks, is billed as "the world's first oceanarium". Marineland functions as an entertainment and swim-with-the-dolphins facility, and reopened to the public on March 4, 2006. In 2011, the park was purchased by the Georgia Aquarium for a reported $9.1 million.
Marineland is a themed zoo and amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. It is operating on a reduced scale while it is slated for redevelopment. No amusement rides are operating and it is claimed that all land animals have been transferred from the facility, however videos in 2024 showed large numbers of deer and some bears still on site. The park continues to exhibit dolphins and beluga whales.
Loro Parque or 'Loro Park' is a 135,000 m2 zoo on the outskirts of Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife, Spain where it houses an extensive and diverse reserve of animal and plant species. The park was conceived as a paradise for parrots and has developed over the years into one of the biggest attractions of the Canary Islands, with over 40 million visitors.
Dolphin drive hunting, also called dolphin drive fishing, is a method of hunting dolphins and occasionally other small cetaceans by driving them together with boats, usually into a bay or onto a beach. Their escape is prevented by closing off the route to the open sea or ocean with boats and nets. Dolphins are hunted this way in several places around the world including the Solomon Islands, the Faroe Islands, Peru, and Japan, which is the most well-known practitioner of the method. In large numbers dolphins are mostly hunted for their meat; some end up in dolphinariums.
SeaWorld San Diego is a theme park in Mission Bay Park in San Diego, California. It is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, public aquarium, and marine animal rehabilitation center. SeaWorld, the theme park's proprietor, is owned and operated by United Parks & Resorts.
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 mammals and offers additional entertainment attractions. It is thus seen as a combination of a public aquarium and an amusement park. Marine mammal parks are different from marine parks, which include natural reserves and marine wildlife sanctuaries such as coral reefs, particularly in Australia.
Seven Seas Marine Life Park was a marine mammal park, and animal theme park built and owned by the city of Arlington, Texas, United States. It opened in March 1972, but ended up closing in 1976 after losing millions of dollars.
Mundomar is an animal theme park located in Benidorm, Costa Blanca, Spain. It is the sister park to the water park Aqualandia directly adjacent to it and with which it shares the same car park. There is a viewing area at the top of Mundomar next to the Dolphinarium, which gives a view of the majority of Aqualandia.
L'Oceanogràfic is an oceanarium situated in the Garden of the Turia to the southeast of the city center of Valencia, Spain, where different marine habitats are represented. It was designed by the architect Félix Candela and the structural engineers Alberto Domingo and Carlos Lázaro. It is integrated inside the cultural complex known as the Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciències. It was opened on 14 February 2003.
Dozens of orcas are held in captivity for breeding or performance purposes. The practice of capturing and displaying orcas in exhibitions began in the 1960s, and they soon became popular attractions at public aquariums and aquatic theme parks due to their intelligence, trainability, striking appearance, playfulness, and sheer size. As of 24 March 2024, around 55 orcas are in captivity worldwide, 33 of which were captive-born. At that time, there were 18 orcas in the SeaWorld parks.
Sea Life Park Hawaii is a marine mammal park, bird sanctuary and aquarium in Waimānalo near Makapuʻu Point, north of Hanauma Bay on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, United States. The park first opened in 1964 and was acquired in 2008 by Palace Entertainment, the U.S. subsidiary of Parques Reunidos from Dolphin Discovery, which had acquired it in 2005.
Ulises is a male orca who lives at SeaWorld San Diego in California. He was captured off the coast of Iceland in 1980 and is currently the oldest male orca in captivity as of 2022. SeaWorld San Diego celebrates his birthday on 2 January every year.
Dolfinarium Harderwijk, better known as the Dolfinarium, is a marine mammal park in Harderwijk, the Netherlands. It is the largest marine mammal park in Europe. Visitor numbers were steady from 2005 to 2011, numbering between 700,000 and 800,000, with only the opening of new attractions responsible for a surge in numbers. In 2012 the Dolfinarium made €12 million in sales, which was around €2,4 million lower than the year before. This was mainly due to a decline in visitor numbers because of orca Morgan leaving the park, and the park temporarily closing down due to the start of construction at the end of the year.
Chimelong Ocean Kingdom is a theme park situated in Hengqin, Zhuhai, People's Republic of China. It was designed by PGAV Destinations. The park broke ground on November 28, 2010 and soft-opened on January 28, 2014. The grand opening occurred on March 29 of that year. The first phase of the park cost RMB 10 billion to build. It is part of the Chimelong International Ocean Tourist Resort, which aims to become the "Orlando of China". In 2023 the park hosted 12.52 million visitors, making it the sixth-most visited theme park in the world and the most visited theme park in the world that is not a Disney or Universal park.
Marineland of South Australia was a public aquarium and wildlife park in West Beach, South Australia that opened in 1969 and closed permanently in 1988.
