Sea-Arama in Galveston was an island attraction for decades

Galveston Island once had an wildlife-filled park similar to SeaWorld. Once the San Antonio attraction dominated the market in 1988, Sea-Arama shut down and the park slowly decayed until it demolished over a decade ago. This is how the park looked in May 1970, just five years after it opened. See more photos of the park in its heyday... less Galveston Island once had an wildlife-filled park similar to SeaWorld. Once the San Antonio attraction dominated the market in 1988, Sea-Arama shut down and the park slowly decayed until it demolished over a ... more Photo: Sea-Arama Photo: Sea-Arama Image 1 of / 99 Caption Close Sea-Arama in Galveston was an island attraction for decades 1 / 99 Back to Gallery

For those who grew up in the Houston area, Sea-Arama Marineworld in Galveston was a year-round institution, where you could see performing dolphins interact with staff, gander at whales that could eat you whole, marvel at exotic birds, and watch a man wrestle an alligator.

Oh, and who can forget the ski shows, with guys and girls in bathing suits miming to pop songs about romance on the beach.

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Photo: Tim Gould This is a map of Sea-Arama, courtesy of Tim Gould, of what the park...

Clear Lake’s Tim Gould spent a small part of his late teens and early 20s training dolphins, whales, and sea lions for live shows at the tropically-decorated Sea-Arama. For years Gould has run the Remembering Sea-Arama Marineworld web page, an online repository of all things Sea-Arama.

In 2016 Gould’s work culminated with the release of a detailed book on the history of the park, made in part with help from former employees and visitors.

“Memories are slowly fading of the park as the years go by,” Gould told Chron.com in 2018.

The park opened in 1965 to great local fanfare (the same year that the Astrodome opened) and was one of the first ocean theme parks in the nation of its kind.

It would wow families in the area for the next two and half decades, attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees each year.

Sea-Arama occupied nearly 40 acres of near beachfront property, had a ski lake, and a 50-foot, 200,000-gallon aquarium for the animals. Older fans of the park will remember Mamuk, a killer whale that resided at the park for six years in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Houstonian Carol Rodriguez-Sentonnian was a part of the first generation of kids from the area to fall in love with Sea-Arama. The dolphin shows and the water-skiing reeled her in immediately on family trips in the '70s.

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Photo: Google Maps An aerial shot of the Sea-Arama grounds, as seen on a Google...

"The colors inside were like bright blue aqua and the chlorine smell cleared your sinuses," she told Chron.com. "I remember they had one of those machines that would flatten your penny."

Over the years the park staff worked with area wildlife experts to house and rehabilitate ocean life in the area that were in dire need of treatment and care, winning a handful of awards.

“It was rusting, it needed major renovations, and the salt air had taken its toll,” Gould told Chron.com. “I don’t think they ever really envisioned it lasting as long as it did.”

The park closed in early January 1990, after SeaWorld in San Antonio had whittled away the audience for Sea-Arama, whose owners didn't want to dump money into the park to revitalize it. SeaWorld had opened in May 1988 and was heavily marketing itself all along the Gulf Freeway, on the way to Sea-Arama.

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Photo: Abandoned But Not Forgotten / Abnf.co This is how the park looked in 2006, before it was demolished after...

After its closing there were vague plans for the city of Galveston to turn it into an educational and research aquarium, possibly connected with marine science programs at Texas A&M University-Galveston, but nothing ever came to fruition. At one point a 36-acre greyhound race track was destined for the area near the park but that also never happened.

The animals that still resided at Sea-Arama were sent to other similar parks around the country. Gould didn’t go to work on the last day of Sea-Arama.

Greg Whittaker, now Moody Gardens’ animal husbandry manager, got his start in the professional animal care field at Sea-Arama in 1988 while still a student at Texas A&M on the island. He worked there for about 16 months at the end of the park’s run.

“I learned a lot there about taking care of animals,” Whittaker said. “We didn’t have a lot of resources toward the end of its time but the quality of care for the animals never dropped off.” The core mission was always the conservation of wildlife, which made it somewhat ahead of its time.

“If it had streamlined itself a little better it could have had the workings to become a successful place to this day,” Whittaker said. “That place was a training ground for a lot of professionals who are still active to this day in the marine wildlife field.”

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For some locals working there is still a badge of islander honor.

“You can’t shake a stick around here without finding someone who worked at the park either at the concession stands or with the animals,” Whittaker said.

Over 53 years since it first opened all that is left of Sea-Arama are two man-made lakes and the traffic entrances off the Seawall. Most of the palm trees that dotted the ground have been removed. By looking at aerial satellite views a rough outline of the park can only be vaguely seen.

Before it was finally torn down in 2006, Sea-Arama’s ruins were a favorite unofficial attraction for curious island residents and teens from the area.

Covered in gnarly graffiti, the park was then an apocalyptic collection of crumbling concrete, green water, and overgrown weeds.

Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.com