Embattled aquarium chain SeaQuest asks Idaho bankruptcy judge to OK bargain sale
Owners of the financially troubled aquarium chain SeaQuest, whose Folsom location was beset by claims of animal abuse, asked an Idaho bankruptcy judge Friday to approve the company’s sale for the cost of a luxury sedan.
SeaQuest attorneys in the filing say the $88,000 sale price was “approximate to fair market value” after talking with equity partners and gauging the market for interactive animal and wildlife exhibitions.
The case was still waiting to be discharged Friday, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boise. Attorneys in Boise representing SeaQuest could not be immediately reached for comment.
The private sale to Z&A Management LLC transfers the Idaho-based chain’s aquarium and wildlife exhibits in Utah; Las Vegas; Minnesota; Boise, Idaho; and Folsom, the site of past complaints of inhumane treatment and handling of animals in its care, to Z&A owner Jeff Cox. Cox, who owns a 4% share in the beleaguered chain, agreed to waive a $1.6 million security interest in the property as part of the sale.
The discounted price contained in the company’s motion to sell also included equipment and fixtures, food and the animals that were once SeaQuest’s main attraction and chief source of controversy amid repeated allegations of mistreatment and worse at its locations.
The deal would close “as soon as possible” after the Boise bankruptcy court approves the sale, attorneys said.
SeaQuest Holdings LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Idaho in December and “has lost millions of dollars over the last years of its operation.”
SeaQuest CEO Aaron Neilsen said in December the company had a long-term plan in place, though the company revealed that its gross revenues dropped to about $15 million in 2024 from more than $27 million in 2022, The Idaho Statesman reported.
Attorneys now say SeaQuest and CEO Aaron Neilsen have been unable to find a partner or investor, and have no sufficient funds to continue operating.
“After considering potential alternatives, the sale of the property to the buyer is in the best interest of the debtor, its estate and all stakeholders,” the attorneys wrote.
The U.S. Small Business Administration which holds a $3.9 million lien on SeaQuest’s Folsom property will only be paid a small fraction from the deal, according to the filing.
The total to the SBA at closing: $15,028.40.
SeaQuest opened its Folsom location in the city’s Palladio retail center in 2018 to fanfare and protest over the then-new for-profit wildlife company’s already controversial track record of legal troubles.
The interactive 22,000-square-foot Folsom location touted feeding and petting opportunities, more than 1,000 species on display and rotating exhibits. SeaQuest boasted the Folsom location would feature “flashy fish, brightly-colored birds, riveting reptiles and more.”
Then-SeaQuest CEO Vince Covino and brother Ammon Covino had run into outcry and legal trouble before the 2018 Folsom opening. Workers in 2013 blamed them for the deaths of hundreds of animals at Portland Aquarium, which they owned until its closure in 2016.
Also in 2013, Ammon Covino went to prison for conspiring to buy rays and lemon sharks poached from the Florida Keys, The Idaho Statesman reported. Court records showed he violated his parole twice, allegedly by helping to open SeaQuest locations. Vince Covino later denied Ammon’s involvement with SeaQuest in a Sacramento Bee interview.
The Covinos are no longer associated with SeaQuest.
A 2019 video taken by Folsom patrons and posted by animal advocacy organization PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, showed a disturbing scene. The clip shows a handful of guests starting to surround a large fish flopping on the floor outside of two display tanks, each approximately 6 feet tall, after falling out of one of the tanks.
An employee scooped up the flailing fish with a sweatshirt before depositing it back in the display tank. PETA advocates called on Folsom and state wildlife officials to investigate the site’s conditions.
The incident was reportedly observed the same day a stingray was found dead in a touch tank by a visitor, The Bee reported at the time.
It was one of four alleged instances in which visitors found marine wildlife dead or injured while on display PETA advocates detailed in a letter to Folsom city officials.
SeaQuest’s Folsom location remained open Friday.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 2:19 PM.
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