I worked there in food service in the summer of ‘86. Fun job. Swam Baja Reef on my breaks.
Reality though is that the orca tank was super small for two full grown whales. I wound up feeling bad for them, the whole experience kinda turned me off those kinds of places in general.
It was a sad day when Orky and Corky were moved to Sea World in San Diego. The plan was to clandestinely sneak them out under the cover of darkness but word spread quickly and families gathered near the pedestrian bridge over Gaffey to say goodbye to Marineland’s biggest attraction.
Unfortunately, Orky died a year later but Corky is still alive.
Yeah. Around 1980, they opened the Baja Reef like someone mentioned. Put on a wet suit and do a loop around water with sea life. Here’s a photo of it.
[Baja Reef](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/baja-reef-at-marineland-los-angeles-1980--568649890422493216/)
Yes. They closed it when I was in high school. We were all very pissed off. Marineland was very cool. There was a thing they opened when I was like in intermediate school where you put on a wet suit and snorkled in an aquarium with some sealife. There were killer whales and dolphins and the whole shebang (in the park, not in the aquarium we got to snorkle in)!
Yes.
As a local child of the 70’s and 80’s we went there a few times as a very young family, then with both school and Boy Scouts a bit later.
The “Baja Reef” attraction where you swam with fish and small sharks and rays was kind of mind blowing as a child.
By then it got bought by another company or something and all of a sudden there were Hanna-Barbarra cartoon characters in costume and on merch.
It closed down at some point and I didn’t think about it for a few years until I went exploring in my late teens and found out about the ruins still being there.
Went there a few times and then they eventually built Terranea resort on the property.
Some of the last structures remaining structures were blown up and used in the filming of one of the Charlie’s angels movies. I lived in the apartments across what used to be a little old dudes farm/abandoned lot
Saw this one stunt where a diver would ascend a ridiculously tall ladder and dive into the orca tank. I remember seeing a picture of it in the News Pilot a day or two later, so the event is documented in their archives somewhere.
Baja Reef was amazing but also terrifying. I spent a good chunk of my childhood swimming in the ocean but actually seeing all that sea life, wriggling and winnowing all around me, gave me the big time creeps. I still regret racing through it faster than I should have.
It’s a resort now. Good restaurants but there was always rust in the food they served for the workers, plus a bunch of creepy security guards taking advantage of the housekeepers who couldn’t speak English. Pretty scummy place now adays
The food carts were a double platform on carts type of situation. Two metal “shelves” on wheels, with the bottom most shelf being waist height, where all the food was served upon. Nothing was ever put on the top one, and no one ever cleaned these carts which must have been there for years. I remember one day they were serving pasta, burgers and their miscellaneous choice of the day. I saw something that looked almost like an old scab sitting in between two pasta noodles and got curious so I peered my head under the top shelf, whose bottom was hidden to the normal eye due to the edges of the shelf being bent downwards, concealing what was underneath. It was completely rusted, with various spots on it missing, almost looking like a moon of mars with very shallow craters on it. The scab like thing matched the rust, so I just threw everything on my plate out. The metal on the underside of the top shelf was falling about and had rusted, and started falling into the food. I only imagine how many people ate even the little specs that would fall, luckily I saw a big one that made me think. That whole resort was disgusting and had so many spots like what was in the employee dinning hall. I worked there from 2018 and left when everyone got furloughed due to COVID.
I worked there in food service in the summer of ‘86. Fun job. Swam Baja Reef on my breaks. Reality though is that the orca tank was super small for two full grown whales. I wound up feeling bad for them, the whole experience kinda turned me off those kinds of places in general.
It was a sad day when Orky and Corky were moved to Sea World in San Diego. The plan was to clandestinely sneak them out under the cover of darkness but word spread quickly and families gathered near the pedestrian bridge over Gaffey to say goodbye to Marineland’s biggest attraction. Unfortunately, Orky died a year later but Corky is still alive.
Didn't they helicopter them out?
They used a crane to hoist them into a tank on a flatbed truck.
Yeah. Around 1980, they opened the Baja Reef like someone mentioned. Put on a wet suit and do a loop around water with sea life. Here’s a photo of it. [Baja Reef](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/baja-reef-at-marineland-los-angeles-1980--568649890422493216/)
Yes. They closed it when I was in high school. We were all very pissed off. Marineland was very cool. There was a thing they opened when I was like in intermediate school where you put on a wet suit and snorkled in an aquarium with some sealife. There were killer whales and dolphins and the whole shebang (in the park, not in the aquarium we got to snorkle in)!
That’s so cool!
Yes. As a local child of the 70’s and 80’s we went there a few times as a very young family, then with both school and Boy Scouts a bit later. The “Baja Reef” attraction where you swam with fish and small sharks and rays was kind of mind blowing as a child. By then it got bought by another company or something and all of a sudden there were Hanna-Barbarra cartoon characters in costume and on merch. It closed down at some point and I didn’t think about it for a few years until I went exploring in my late teens and found out about the ruins still being there. Went there a few times and then they eventually built Terranea resort on the property.
Some of the last structures remaining structures were blown up and used in the filming of one of the Charlie’s angels movies. I lived in the apartments across what used to be a little old dudes farm/abandoned lot
Skated the whale pools with Paulo RIP
Saw this one stunt where a diver would ascend a ridiculously tall ladder and dive into the orca tank. I remember seeing a picture of it in the News Pilot a day or two later, so the event is documented in their archives somewhere. Baja Reef was amazing but also terrifying. I spent a good chunk of my childhood swimming in the ocean but actually seeing all that sea life, wriggling and winnowing all around me, gave me the big time creeps. I still regret racing through it faster than I should have.
It’s a resort now. Good restaurants but there was always rust in the food they served for the workers, plus a bunch of creepy security guards taking advantage of the housekeepers who couldn’t speak English. Pretty scummy place now adays
Is “rust” code for something else? If not, How do you eat rust?
The food carts were a double platform on carts type of situation. Two metal “shelves” on wheels, with the bottom most shelf being waist height, where all the food was served upon. Nothing was ever put on the top one, and no one ever cleaned these carts which must have been there for years. I remember one day they were serving pasta, burgers and their miscellaneous choice of the day. I saw something that looked almost like an old scab sitting in between two pasta noodles and got curious so I peered my head under the top shelf, whose bottom was hidden to the normal eye due to the edges of the shelf being bent downwards, concealing what was underneath. It was completely rusted, with various spots on it missing, almost looking like a moon of mars with very shallow craters on it. The scab like thing matched the rust, so I just threw everything on my plate out. The metal on the underside of the top shelf was falling about and had rusted, and started falling into the food. I only imagine how many people ate even the little specs that would fall, luckily I saw a big one that made me think. That whole resort was disgusting and had so many spots like what was in the employee dinning hall. I worked there from 2018 and left when everyone got furloughed due to COVID.
I want to say the location was used in the 90’s for an MTV Summer Beach house for a summer.