Six Flags To Offer Dolphin Touch and Feeding Experience

Ocean Discovery at Six Flags Marine World theme park.

Vallejo, CA — Six Flags Marine World announces "Ocean Discovery" a unique Caribbean-themed ocean experience that puts guests up close and personal with dolphins, stingrays, warm-weathered penguins and sea lions.

Ocean Discovery, to open this spring, will be the only place in Northern California where the ocean will touch guests as they touch and feed dolphins and stingrays while learning about the conservation and protection of these majestic mammals.

This new area at the theme park will feature three different experiences. Dolphin Encounter will give guests the opportunity to interact with and feed Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Penguin Passage will give you a rare underwater and eye-level view of warm-weathered penguins in a two-tier, 8,000-gallon outdoor rocky pool. And at Stingray Bay guests will experience the slippery skin of exotic, southern stingrays in a 12,000-gallon pool.

"Ocean Discovery is the only place where Northern Californians can interact with these amazing ocean mammals first-hand," said Six Flags Marine World vice president and general manager Joe Meck. "Instead of just watching the Dolphin Harbor show, you'll now be able to touch and experience the dolphins for yourself, resulting in a remarkable, interactive and one-of-a-kind experience."

Dolphin Encounter pool will afford you and up-close experience where you can touch and feed dolphins.

Stingray Experience is another part of the new Ocean Discovery attraction at Six Flags Marine World.

Those who've been fascinated by these mammals who perform aerial acrobatics in the park's Dolphin Harbor Shows will finally get their chance to come face-to-face with them. At specific times throughout the day guests will interact directly with the dolphins as they assist the park's trainers in hands-on training sessions.

Six Flags will carefully control the food type and quantity as part of the dolphin's daily feeding program to ensure maximum health and protection. Guests can also watch the dolphins surf and play underwater in their new 200,000-gallon habitat.

Ocean Discovery will also offer visitors the chance to touch and feed slithering southern stingrays in Stingray Bay. These mysterious and fascinating sea creatures are commonly found in the southern parts of the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

If the stingrays are not enough, a colony of warm-weathered penguins will make their home in Ocean Discovery. These extremely social birds can be seen swimming through the water at 15 miles per hour and basking in the sun. Found in South America, these flightless birds are sure to entertain observers from an outdoor, rocky-exhibit complete with an 8,000-gallon pool, replicating the penguin's natural habitat.

Six Flags Marine World will also introduce a new theme and new animals for the park's Sea Lion Show. The humorous and entertaining performance will provide a combination of sea lions and river otters at they demonstrate an array of animal acrobatics and other surprises. Six Flags promises an exciting new era for the park's Sea Lion Show.

Shouka will return again this year with her popular Splashtime Show. Flown from Ohio to Marine World in 2004, this killer whale will educate and entertain audiences again in 2005. Beware of the "Shouka Splash Zone" an area where guests just might get soaked by a wave of water created by Shouka.

Six Flags Marine World opens the 2005 season on March 12. For more information visit sixflags.com.