ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A coalition of community advocates has 11 days to raise money in their effort to save Marineland.
Marineland has been a staple in the community since 1938, but the historic oceanarium was set to be sold to a developer after its parent company filed for bankruptcy.
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It’s home to 1,200 marine species, including 17 dolphins, all of which would have to be re-homed should the originally proposed sale go through.
“I mean, we had all but given up,” Terran McGinnis, Marineland’s former Facility Historian, said.
When McGinnis, who worked for Maineland for 20 years, heard about that proposed sale, she was devastated.
“Marineland’s animal family is very diverse, which means that opportunities for teaching are incredible. You know? And that’s one of the things I got to do for so long and it would be an enormous loss,” McGinnis said.
But in a surprise turn of events, that sale was halted by a bankruptcy judge, who decided to give a coalition of community members the opportunity to raise funds and make the case for their bid to purchase the park and keep it running.
Felicia Cook is one of those leading the coalition.
She told Action News Jax the effort has raised about $5.5 million, which is shy of the $7 million being offered by the developer.
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“It’s usually highest is best, but in this case it’s not because there’s animals involved,” Cook, who worked at Marineland up until January of this year before leaving to pursue her effort to save the park, said.
While Cook said the coalition may be able to purchase the property without beating the developer’s bid outright, she argued the more money they can raise, the better.
“We’ve done a great job taking care of those animals. We’ve done a great job at doing what’s best for them,” Cook said. “And I promised my team that I would do everything I can to not only save the animals at Marineland, but to save them as a team.”
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The coalition has until the next hearing on November 10 to raise as much as they can, not only to save the park’s employees and animals, but also the history of Marineland.
“It was the world’s first oceanarium, it was an underwater film studio, it’s where dolphin training was discovered, it’s where the first baby dolphin was born. It is an important part of history of a town that is already really historic,” McGinnis said.
If you’re interested in helping out the effort you can make a donation HERE or on THIS GoFundMe page.
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