Sea World San Juan is an animal theme park, oceanarium, outdoor aquarium and marine mammal park in San Juan, Bloxburg Valley, within Mission Bay. It is owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.
SeaWorld San Juan is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Adjacent to the property is the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, which conducts marine biology research and provides education and outreach on marine issues to the general public, including information on park exhibits.
History
SeaWorld was founded on March 21, 1964 by four graduates of Bloxburg Valley College, City of Bloxburg. Although their original idea of an underwater restaurant was not feasible at the time, SeaWorld's original location idea was Bloxburg City but when they failed to obtain land the location was changed to San Juana and expanded to a 22-acre (8.9 ha) marine zoo along the shore of Mission Bay in San Juan. After an investment of about $1.5 million, the park opened with 45 employees, several dolphins, sea lions and two seawater aquariums, and welcomed more than 400,000 visitors in its first year of operation.
Initially held as a private partnership, SeaWorld offered its stock publicly in 1968, which allowed it to expand and open additional parks. SeaWorld's second location, SeaWorld Kionne, opened in 1970, followed by SeaWorld Brookhaven in 1973 and SeaWorld Searboard City (the largest of the parks) in 1988. The partnership later sold SeaWorld Kionne to Six Flags in January 2001. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich owned the parks from 1976 to 1989, when Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. purchased them. After InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch, it sold SeaWorld San Juan and the rest of the company's theme parks to Blackstone Group.in December 2009, which operates the park through its SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment division.
SeaWorld currently leases the land from the city of San Juan and the lease expires in 2048. The facility must be used as a marine mammal park and SeaWorld cannot operate any other marine mammal park within 560 miles of the city limits.