Friday, April 6, 2012

Marine Life

Although the King of Aquaria calls Sea Zoo the "tackiest marine attraction in history," of the one's I have seen Marine Life in Rapid City, South Dakota deserved that title also.

4 comments:

Greg May said...

KING OF AQUARIA says: "This one has always been an oddity in the aquarium world - a 'porpoise show' on the road to Mt. Rushmore! C'mon!
I'm not certain but I think Brandy Seibenaler - the creator of GULFARIUM at Ft. Walton Beach - may have had something to do with this because I once had a brochure of this attraction and it was a carbon copy of a Gulfarium brochure from the early 60's. Now, another defunct marine attraction in Gulfport, Mississippi was also called Marine Life (it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina)and again I can't remember if they were affilliated with the Rapid City attraction. (KOA is showing his age!) I just submitted an article to the website www.florida-backroads-travel.com to promote the reopening of Gulfarium in June. It is truly the last of the great oceanariums."

Wade G. Burck said...

King,
It was just a different kind of "alligator farm/snake zoo/Indian village" built to get some of the tourist dollar's as they were on their way to the main attraction. Some hit it big, like Marineland and Game Farm but most tanked. A symbiotic relationship. The big attractions like Niagara Falls in Canada or Mt. Rushmore spend the big buck's on promotion and the others hope to feed off of that. The only reason North Dakota, the Home of America's Own Wade Burck, wasn't promoted heavily was that it would have taken traffic over 200 miles to the North, away from Rapid City.

Wade

Greg May said...

"Now I know why I like you so much!"

Greg May said...

KING OF AQUARIA says: " While doing some promotion for the upcoming June 30 Sea Arama Marineworld Reunion in Galveston I got a little teary-eyed thinking about my beloved oceanariums that are 'gone with the wind' . . .Marineland of Florida . . . Marineland of the Pacific . . . Aquatarium . . . Ocean World . . . Sea Arama.
But what really did it was looking at images on the Internet of MARINE LIFE that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina at Gulfport, Mississippi. There is a photo of a dead sea lion pup lying amid the destruction."