The Foster Park whales are Alabama-bound.

The whales, which have built-in sprinklers, were a summertime attraction at Foster Park for the past 17 years. They were removed in May due to electrical, plumbing and safety problems caused by their deteriorated condition. The city replaced them with picnic tables and two grills.

The whales were stored at the city shop and listed on govdeals.com, a website that provides a venue for government agencies to sell surplus and confiscated items on the Internet. Municipal Clerk Gloria Rogers said the whales were auctioned off separately on govdeals.com and the winning bidder for both of them was Richard Peck, a resident of Dora, Ala. Mrs. Rogers said Peck purchased one of the whales for $313 and the other for $246 on June 10. She said he paid for the whales on June 18.

Maintenance director Mike Petrie said that Peck collected the whales from the city shop Thursday afternoon.

The city has been using govdeals.com since June 2006 to sell a wide variety of surplus vehicles and other equipment. Over the past three years, the sale of surplus equipment on the site has generated $115,387.42 in gross revenue for the city. Each time an item sells the city pays govdeals.com a fee. Since 2007 the city has paid $9,095.04 in fees leaving it with a net profit of $106,292.38.

The revenue generated by the govdeals sales is placed in the city’s general government fund.