I’d imagine the only people interested in Dragon Mountain would be buying it for parts, but 2.5 million for a parts donor seems like a lot.
News Marineland Transitioning to New Mystery Owners
- Thread starter Zachary
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It really closely follows the terrain anyway. Probably can't even be relocated for that reason, you'd need a park with the exact terrain that Marineland has. They're probably only selling the important parts, track being scrapped.
In case anyone is curious I got these prices through a spreadsheet that was created two days ago, there was some other minor ride documentation attached.
Someone could theoretically purchase and relocate the entirety of Dragon Mountain, it's just not going to happen
(
This is following the recent news that Canada denied Marineland's attempt to export their Belugas to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Zhuhai, China.
I understand that people desire the absolute best for these belugas and I understand that Chimelong isn't the absolute best imaginable outcome, BUT Chimelong may well have been the absolute best, reasonably achievable outcome. Given the state of animal welfare laws in China and given the questionable standards of care Chimelong has been accused of, I find it hard to condemn activists or the Canadian government for denying the attempt to ship them out there. At the same time, from where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like there are better, reasonably achievable, outcomes on the table—and definitely not within a reasonable timetable. Sometimes we can't let perfect be the enemy of the good and we need to advocate for improvements to present conditions regardless of whether or not the outcome is ideal. This feels like one of those occasions to me.
The clock has been ticking for these belugas for a VERY long time now. There aren't many places that can reasonably house this many belugas with an even remotely acceptable level of care—so the Chimelong deal feels like a really goddamn rare opportunity for at least a bit of a solution to me. The situation at Chimelong almost certainly isn't perfect, but it is definitely infinitely better than the current situation at Marineland.
I don't know that there will be another offramp anytime soon—and if another does come, I worry it will be too late for even more of these belugas.
I understand that people desire the absolute best for these belugas and I understand that Chimelong isn't the absolute best imaginable outcome, BUT Chimelong may well have been the absolute best, reasonably achievable outcome. Given the state of animal welfare laws in China and given the questionable standards of care Chimelong has been accused of, I find it hard to condemn activists or the Canadian government for denying the attempt to ship them out there. At the same time, from where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like there are better, reasonably achievable, outcomes on the table—and definitely not within a reasonable timetable. Sometimes we can't let perfect be the enemy of the good and we need to advocate for improvements to present conditions regardless of whether or not the outcome is ideal. This feels like one of those occasions to me.
The clock has been ticking for these belugas for a VERY long time now. There aren't many places that can reasonably house this many belugas with an even remotely acceptable level of care—so the Chimelong deal feels like a really goddamn rare opportunity for at least a bit of a solution to me. The situation at Chimelong almost certainly isn't perfect, but it is definitely infinitely better than the current situation at Marineland.
I don't know that there will be another offramp anytime soon—and if another does come, I worry it will be too late for even more of these belugas.
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The article stated an apparent $2,000,000 per month to take care of the belugas. Wow.
How does someone working in a regulatory capacity that involves captive animals such as these whales not understand that it would likely be a catastrophe to reintroduce these animals directly back into the wild; it'd basically be a slower form of euthanasia for whales bred into captivity as they never learned how to survive and/or thrive in a natural environment?
Are they going to be strong and healthy enough to travel the distances they need for feeding, including understanding and traveling migratory routes? Are they able to handle the differences in ocean conditions including salinity, pollution, currents, visibility, and/or temperature? How about forming bonds with wild pods? What about understanding what are predators, prey, and non-competitors? I'm sure there's other conditions I'm neglecting here, but these are the ones that come to mind.
I'm guessing it's possible for a successful reintroduction to the wild if all these things can be trained and the individual whales can adapt quickly - they do have relatively high intelligence - but that's predicated on a well-funded research-driven approach, which in itself doesn't guarantee success, and is obviously not the situation for these whales.
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You are right on everything you said but one thing.
"to reintroduce these animals directly back into the wild; it'd basically be a slower form of euthanasia"
Euthanasia is the killing to end suffering. This would be a slow painful and frightening end for these animals and would be considerably worse the Euthanasia
I guess I wasn't using the correct choice of words; this would be cruelty and probably murder.
There have been so many of these occasions in the past year.
Their first priority isn’t caring for the animals, it’s optics. Usually those two align and everything works out, but when virtue signaling and the animals’ best interests don’t line up that’s when those kinds of people make these kinds of decisions
I don't think they'd want to touch this with a ten foot pole. Many of the belugas are likely not in the best of shape and the last thing United Parks wants is more ire from PETA et al. (by taking them in) and then the negative press broadly of beluga after beluga dying for years and years into the future.
Part of the reason I think Chimelong is uniquely positioned to take on this collection of belugas is that they won't face backlash locally for onboarding and keeping such a huge number of whales in captivity. Most any western corporation that does try to help by taking on (even some of) these belugas will, unfortunately, inevitably, face a lot of (to be clear, insane, absurd, completely unjustified, wildly counterproductive, and honestly just generally self-defeating) blowback regardless of the actual level of care being provided and despite the obviously VASTLY superior quality of life the whales would have.
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Pricing for Marineland’s rides.
God I wish I had $2.5m plus relocation, installation, and operation costs laying around.
God I wish I had $2.5m plus relocation, installation, and operation costs laying around.
I get that - I was more thinking in terms of funding a new rescue-oriented venture but otherwise having nothing to do with the parks.
If there's still a desire at all to mention animal rescues for PR and investors, this would be a slam dunk of positive message without needing to bring up the historic deficiencies in animal shows because the animals won't be going to any park location.
Perhaps providing funding to conservation/museum teams that can quickly develop a workable transition to an ocean pen that satisfies the Canadian authority's desire for the whales to be in the ocean while still keeping safeguards for their health and well-being as best as possible.
I know Herschend otherwise owns aquariums and has some experience with large ocean mammals, but I don't think they have the capital required for such a venture.
I think Dragon Mountain is a goner and the Condor is a tough sell for upkeep, but I could see a market for some of these rides in the Six Flags chain.
A few used flat rides work as long as they are in good condition. They could also pickup some cheap kiddie flats for Great America's delayed-to-2027 land. And Great Adventure/Carowinds both lost drop towers last year, so the 300-foot S&S tower could fit in either park.
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Could BGW pick up Flying Dragon for a replacement to Cradle? Thanks. It still runs the good cycle, too.
I would love that so much, but it would make 0 sense for so many different reasons in my opinion. It's older than Cradle was, and is definitely at or past it's service life just like Cradle was. It also isn't anywhere near iconic enough to market solely based on nostalgia like they did with the Nessie refurb and BB2. Although according to Coasterpedia there have been a handful of these magic carpets internationally that have been relocated in the past decade so maybe there's a chance, and I'd love to be surprised