{"id":280834,"date":"2026-05-22T13:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/280834\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:45:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:45:27","slug":"marineland-rebounds-from-dark-days-now-staff-say-the-park-is-thriving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/280834\/","title":{"rendered":"Marineland rebounds from dark days. Now staff say the park is thriving."},"content":{"rendered":"

Just six months ago, as a sale loomed, the future of Marineland Dolphin Adventure was uncertain. Now, with the park under new management, staff say the future is looking bright for everyone at the aquarium \u2014 sea creatures included.<\/p>\n

Before Clay County couple Barbara and Jon Rubel mounted an eleventh-hour campaign to buy Marineland<\/a>, all signs pointed toward a bankruptcy judge brokering a deal to hand the aquarium from its former owner to a real estate development company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those were dark days for the park, Terran McGinnis says. She first got a job at Marineland 21 years ago and has since served as the education director, the historian and now the aquarium\u2019s communications specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really heartbreaking because it looked for a while like the only people interested in purchasing Marineland were developers who were going to sell off the animals,\u201d McGinnis says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MarinelandMarineland frequently hosts field trips for kids and families to see dolphins up close. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

That would have included the aquarium\u2019s 13 dolphins, many of which were born in captivity at the park.<\/p>\n

Park Director Felicia Cook says the new, local ownership has made a world of difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very different working for a corporation, let alone a foreign corporation, than it is working for yourself, which is what we\u2019re doing now as a not-for-profit,\u201d Cook says. \u201cWe\u2019re able to make decisions that we can prioritize as opposed to a corporate office prioritizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook previously worked as the park\u2019s director before she resigned last year. She says that she couldn\u2019t stand having to lay off employees as the financial issues from the park\u2019s former owner, the Dolphin Co., affected Marineland\u2019s day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n

\"ThirteenThirteen dolphins live in Marineland Dolphin Adventure\u2019s 1.3 million-gallon tank. Marineland\u2019s oldest dolphin, Betty, is more than 50 years old. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

Now Cook says the park can focus on promoting conservation and creating partnerships with universities, businesses and civic organizations that will help the park evolve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The park is introducing a new opportunity for guests to get up close with cownose rays, and Marineland is hiring an in-house research director \u2014 something the park couldn\u2019t do when all of its research efforts had to be channeled through a corporate office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With all of those changes, Cook hopes locals and tourists alike will come check out the new Marineland.<\/p>\n

The past, present and future of Marineland<\/p>\n

Even as Marineland\u2019s dire financial straits worsened last year, McGinnis, the park\u2019s communications specialist, says she simply couldn\u2019t believe the aquarium would be sold off and paved over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just couldn\u2019t imagine a world without Marineland,\u201d McGinnis says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The aquarium has, after all, been around for the better part of a century.<\/p>\n

Marineland opened in 1938 as Marine Studios, a hub not just for aquatic research, but for films to capture an under-the-sea atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA headline in the Florida Times-Union on June 24, 1938, announces the opening of Marine Studios. Before it was the aquarium people know today, Marineland\u2019s studios were used to shoot films, including the sequel to \u201cThe Creature from the Black Lagoon.\u201d | Florida Times-Union archive<\/p>\n

The park grew and changed over the years but eventually closed in 2003 before reopening three years later. Marineland was sold to the Georgia Aquarium in 2011, and the Mexico-based Dolphin Co.<\/a> bought it in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Marineland felt the effects of the Dolphin Co.\u2019s tanking finances as controversy mounted around the treatment of animals<\/a> at another park the company owned.<\/p>\n

For a time, Marineland\u2019s staff were not even being paid.<\/p>\n

Associate curator Caitlin Rose says she and a group of staff members agreed to support each other and stick with Marineland until its doors closed for good to ensure the animals were treated well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not their concern,\u201d Rose says of Marineland\u2019s dolphins. \u201cThey need to worry about snacks, and they need to worry about playing with their friends and they need to be worrying about staying healthy. It\u2019s more important for us to figure out the rest of it for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a week-to-week basis, everyone chipped in, Rose says.<\/p>\n

They shared food and other necessities and looked out for one another to make sure the dolphins were fed and cared for. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very much like we came together as a team because if we were surviving, then (the dolphins) were thriving,\u201d Rose says.<\/p>\n

But those days are over, she says. Now, staff don\u2019t have to worry about where their next paycheck is coming from.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s thanks to Barbara and Jon Rubel, the Clay County couple who stepped in and bought the park \u2014 as well as the help of people like Park Director Cook and other local activists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AquaristAquarist Tianna Betz feeds cownose ray Reggie at Marineland Dolphin Adventure. While the park is chiefly known for its dolphins, Marineland also includes rays and other fish species. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

As for long-term planning, Jon Rubel says he and his wife aren\u2019t thinking about selling the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo plans at the moment,\u201d he says. \u201c[W]e are more interested in Marineland getting back up on its feet and running smoothly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The park never shut down during the sale. Changes to its culture and plans have been implemented on the fly.<\/p>\n

Now, staff members like McGinnis want to share the park with the public.<\/p>\n

Marineland isn\u2019t SeaWorld, she says. It\u2019s not as showy, and the park doesn\u2019t have as many animals, \u201cbut this feels like Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want Marineland to go back to being the community\u2019s aquarium,\u201d McGinnis says. \u201cThis belongs to them. We want to know what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just six months ago, as a sale loomed, the future of Marineland Dolphin Adventure was uncertain. Now, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2813,558,115846,43323,1563,116,118,117,119700,115,5902,1316],"class_list":["post-280834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-arts","tag-business","tag-culture-events","tag-distribute","tag-environment","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-marineland","tag-news","tag-st-johns-county","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}