Beloved Bubbles the Whale Returning to Rancho Palos Verdes — Sort Of

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA — Bubbles, the beloved pilot whale, is returning to Rancho Palos Verdes, sort of. The statue of the whale that once donned the entrance of the long-shuttered Marineland aquatic park will soon be installed in Lower Point Vicente Park, the Daily Breeze reported.

After the whale died early this year at SeaWorld San Diego, some residents petitioned to restore the statue and now the City Council has approved a plan to install the statue somewhere near the Point Vicente Interpretive Center, according to the Daily Breeze.

The whale was a staple at Marineland before she was shipped off to SeaWorld when the park abruptly closed in 1987. Since the park's closure, the statue was housed at a Rancho Palos Verdes maintenance yard. Robert Craig stumbled across it while on a walk with his daughter and dog in 2014, according to the Daily Breeze.

It was Craig to pushed for the statue to be displayed somewhere in the city.

“I’m glad the city, through the support of all the people and the donors and everybody that has some good memories of Marineland and Bubbles ... took it as a Peninsula icon,” he told the Daily Breeze.

For more on this story, visit the Daily Breeze.

— Photo of Bubbles courtesy of SeaWorld San Diego; Photo of Bubbles at Marineland by EditorASC via Wikimedia Commons