Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Entrance. Photo provided by TheCoasterTaco.

### Previous Names

Marine World, Marine World Africa USA, The New Marine World Theme Park, Six Flags Marine World

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, formally known as Marine World, Marine World Africa USA, and Six Flags Marine World opened as Marine World in July 1968. In 1986, the park moved from the San Francisco Bay to Vallejo, California. The park's first killer whales were Bonnie and Kianu, two Northern Residents from A Pod. Although they are still open, they moved out their last killer whale, Shouka, in 2012.

## Founding and Early History

   Six Flags Discovery Kingdom had its start as a small zoo in Redwood City, California. Marine World, which opened in July of 1968, was built on reclaimed tidelands on the San Francisco bay. It was owned by the American Broadcasting Company. Their biggest attractions were their seal shows, killer whale shows, and water skiing shows that included a water skiing elephant named Judy. At opening, they owned two female killer whales, Bonnie and Kianu, although Bonnie died only a month after her capture. Both whales had been pregnant at time of their capture, and they both gave birth at Marine World. Both calves were stillborn. Bonnie was the first killer whale to give birth in captivity.

In 1969, Marine World changed management and expanded, adding in several new marine life exhibits. One notable new exhibit was "Big Lou" the elephant seal. They also acquired two new killer whales, a female named Yaka and a male named Nepo.

## Display of Killer Whales

          In 1972, Marine World went bankrupt. It was bought out by Ralph Helfer and Resort's International, which expanded the park with more wildlife exhibits. It was renamed to "Marine World/Africa USA".

In 1978, Marine World sent Kianu to Japan. She had become possessive over Nepo, and would fight Yaka whenever he was around.
In 1979, they rescued a stranded female killer whale named Surfer Girl. She was suffering from pnuemonia. Although she was showing improvement, this wouldn't last. Only a few days after her rescue, Surfer Girl passed away. In 1980 Nepo passed away, leaving Yaka alone. They bought another female killer whale, Vigga, from Iceland, the following year. Vigga was their first Icelandic whale.

George Lucas used an elephant from Marine World Africa USA named Mardji for the Banthas in the first Star Wars movie in the early 70s.

As Marine World Africa, their menagerie expanded, and eventually they had over 400 different species. They had elephants, killer whales, bottlenose dolphins, short and long-finned pilot whales, tigers, lions, birds, sea lions, reptiles, goats, camels, cheetahs, snow leopards, llamas, and hundreds more. Many of these species were endangered, and they had one of the most expansive animal collections in the world.

   Due to tax issues, they could no longer afford the old property. The land was needed for commercial development, and there was pressure to close down the park. Marine World Africa began to look for a new park location in 1985. In 1986, they moved to a site in Vallejo, California. The new site, which was 55 miles away, was almost three times larger than the previous one. It was a massive operation, and over 500 animals and thousands of pounds of equipment were moved. The move gained national attention, and, as a publicity stunt, they loaded dozens of animals onto a boat and sailed them north all the way to the new location.

### Joining Six Flags

    In 1996, the city of Vallejo purchased the park. They hired Premier Parks (now Six Flags Entertainment Corporation) to manage and upgrade the property. They added many non-animal related attractions, such as amusement rides, in an attempt to improve attendance. The park began to attract lots of new visitors. A year later, Yaka died.

They added several roller coasters in the next few years. In 1998, the park was officially renamed to "Six Flags Marine World". By 2000, they had added their fourth major roller coaster. That same year, their last killer whale, Vigga, passed away. In 2007, they finally changed their name to "Six Flags Discovery Kingdom".

Four years after Vigga's death, Six Flags Marine World brought in a female killer whale named Shouka from Six Flags Ohio. She arrived on April 19th, 2004. Shouka lived without any other orcas for several years. Six Flags attempted to bring in Kshamenk, a male killer whale from Argentina, but the Argentinian government would not let them. Shouka lived with bottlenose dolphins for several years, but eventually aggression caused her to be separated from them. Because Shouka was now completely alone, Six Flags was forced to move her to a facility with other killer whales. On August 20th, 2012, Shouka moved to SeaWorld San Diego.

## Incidents

    In the late 60s and early 70s, there were several aggressive incidents between trainers and killer whales. Nepo dragged trainer Dave Worcester to the bottom of the pool. Kianu threw off trainer Jeff Pulaski and chased him out of the pool. In 1969, Kianu pinned a diver who was cleaning the pool with her body. Kianu was known to be moody, and didn't like to do the same behavior over and over again. During a training session, Kianu grabbed the leg of trainer William (Sonny) Allen. She threatened the same trainer in another incident, bumping him and baring her teeth at him.

In July of 2012, Shouka lunged several times at trainers during a show. Shouka was known to occasionally show aggression towards the bottlenose dolphins that she lived with at Six Flags.

## Layout

    The former killer whale habitat in the Vallejo park had four pools. The main pool is 125 ft long, and 60 ft wide. There are two circular back pools, one on the left and one on the right, that are both 50 ft in diameter. The middle, oval-shaped back pool is 50 ft long and 40 ft wide. All three back pools have underwater viewing windows. It held both killer whales and bottlenose dolphins.

The habitat at the old park was much smaller, and for at least some time it was shared by killer whales, pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins, and sea lions. The main pool was a large circular shape with at least one smaller circular pool to the left and at least two smaller wedge-shaped pools to the right.

## Galleries

Photos of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (and former parks).

Videos of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (and former parks).

1. ↑ George Lucas used an elephant from Marine World Africa USA in 'Star Wars' filming
2. ↑ "1988 Marine World Africa USA Promo VHS: Extraordinary Animals"
3. ↑ "Shouka Six Flags Killer Whale Attacks Trainer"