San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
City’s zoo, aquariums struggle to stay above water
Lots of people are confused by San Francisco’s startandstop, phased reopening. Tanya Peterson might be the most perplexed of all — and with good reason.
The director of the San Francisco Zoo wonders why she must keep her mostly outdoor facility closed to protect San Franciscans from COVID19 while shoppers can peruse indoor malls including Westfield San Francisco Centre and Stonestown Galleria. And why have people been allowed to wander outside gazing at flowers at the Botanical Gardens since June 1, but can’t wander outside gazing at animals?
She’s desperate for answers, because it costs an astounding $30,000 a day to feed the facility’s 2,000 animals and the zoo has run through most of its $2.6 million Paycheck Protection Program funding. She has plans to keep visitors safe and doesn’t understand why she can’t implement them when other facilities can.
“I probably share everybody’s confusion as to who is really making the final decisions and why,” Peterson said. “I can no longer explain why we didn’t open earlier.”
The city responded to an inquiry about the inconsistency by saying only “we will move to each phase when it’s safe.”
It’s a growing frustration for those charged with caring for a combined total of 66,000 animals at the zoo, the California Academy of Sciences and the
Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39. Just because the economy has ground to a halt doesn’t mean the animals don’t need as much food, medicine and care as always.
The zoo and the Aquarium of the Bay were set to open June 29 after getting their plans approved by the city — but were told by city officials three days beforehand they must keep their doors closed because of the spike in virus cases in the city. They’ve been shuttered since midMarch and appear likely to miss out on a good chunk of their summer season, meaning an already harrowing financial picture is about to get more desperate.
George Jacob, president of the Aquarium of the Bay, gave me a tour of his facility to show what the reopening would have looked like and how he thinks it would have been safe.
The hand sanitizer stations were in place. The Plexiglas partitions at the ticket booth and signs requiring face masks were up. The arrows on the floor directed guests, capped at 50% of normal, to walk in one direction past the three baby bat rays, the western pond turtle and the frolicking otters. Scores of furloughed workers had been welcomed back.
But like hair salons, tattoo parlors and outdoor bars, aquariums and zoos are in a holding pattern, part of the halted next phase in San Francisco. The pause seems wise for public health as the virus careens out of control in much of the country and is on the rise here, too, but for zoos and aquariums, it’s not as simple as placing plywood on the windows and waiting.
Jacob said he understands the city’s decision to put off his facility’s opening, but the aquarium has already lost $4 million since the shutdown began and food for its 24,000 animals, like food for us, continues to get more expensive.
“That is a huge loss for a small nonprofit like ours,” Jacob said. “Every day is a struggle for the aquarium. At some point these businesses will become untenable and unviable.”
With $1 million from the Paycheck Protection Program and a separate $1 million loan, Jacob said the aquarium will be all right until late July or August, but after that, he’s not sure. He’s started a GoFundMe campaign and is selling masks with six sea life designs to scrape together more funds.
A visit to Pier 39 demonstrated the arbitrary nature of the city’s reopening. Chainlink fences surrounded the aquarium to keep visitors out. Yet people wandered around the pier, which is open, filling outdoor tables at restaurants without masks and browsing inside stores.
San Francisco’s leaders continue to be among the best in the country — which, let’s face it, isn’t saying much — when it comes to keeping us protected from the stillraging virus. But there’s not a lot of clarity about what makes certain facilities and activities OK while others remain prohibited.
While the Aquarium of the Bay and the Academy of Sciences are mostly indoor facilities, making their continued closure understandable, Peterson has the best case for opening. Her facility is a 100acre outdoor park next to the ocean.
Her loyal zoo members are losing their patience, she said, and she’s worried they’ll stop paying membership fees. They don’t understand why zoos in San Diego, Sacramento and Fresno are open, but Oakland and San Francisco have been prohibited from welcoming people back.
The Oakland Zoo announced Wednesday it may have to close permanently if it’s not allowed to open soon.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed was gung ho about the San Francisco Zoo’s imminent reopening when she and Supervisor Norman Yee visited the giraffes’ digs June 25 for a media event. But the next day, Peterson found out the opening was off.
Peterson said she offered a compromise — welcoming back just local families and not outoftowners — but that went nowhere. She agreed to cap attendance at 50% of normal, close indoor exhibits and halt zookeeper talks in front of crowds.
It’s too bad the zoo is still closed considering the city has clearly prioritized the opening of activities for adults over kids. Libraries, playgrounds, swimming pools, athletic fields, aquariums and the zoo remain closed, and here’s guessing with sheer dread that San Francisco public schools might not reopen in the fall.
Peterson said she’s growing “more and more concerned” that the zoo will lose out on $2 million if it’s closed all summer and makes no money in tickets, parking, concessions and rides. Families with trainloving kids will be delighted to know Peterson is letting John
ny Sala, the zoo train’s conductor, visit his sidelined train and take care of it.
If worse comes to worse, the nonprofit that runs the zoo would have to turn over operations to the city, which owns the land and animals, Peterson said. Considering the quality of life City Hall creates for humans in this town, that sounds like a really bad idea.
Zoos often make space for each other’s animals in an emergency, and Peterson said it might be possible for small animals such as birds to find new homes, but it would be far harder to move large animals such as giraffes.
The Academy of Sciences, which is largely indoors, wasn’t planning to reopen June 29 along with the zoo and the Aquarium of the Bay. It was targeting a mid to lateJuly date, but is now in a waitandsee mode. It received $8.1 million through the Paycheck
Protection Program, but is anticipating a $12 million loss this fiscal year. Last month, it laid off 105 employees, furloughed 96 workers, and reduced the salaries of an additional 165.
Bart Shepherd, the director of the Steinhart Aquarium at the academy, said 55 people are still caring for the academy’s 40,000 animals — 10,000 of which, he said with a laugh, thankfully are ants that don’t require much upkeep.
“You can’t furlough the animals,” he said, chuckling.
The animals seem to be doing pretty well, he said, and the staff is working hard to keep them entertained. They do yoga in front of the penguins. They take Barney and Callie, the two friendly macaws who perch in the rain forest and love people, all over the facility so they don’t get bored. One day, their perch will be placed in front of the coral reef, and another day it’ll be in front of the penguins.
And as for the most famous San Francisco animal of all? Claude, the academy’s albino alligator, can shelter in place in his newly remodeled home, a project planned before the shutdown to give him more space to rest outside the water.
You could say that, unlike the rest of us, he’s doing just swimmingly.
Shepherd said he’s looking forward to welcoming the public back safely to see Claude, the macaws, the penguins and all the other beloved critters at the academy.
“One of the main reasons we exist is to showcase to people the wonder of the natural world and give them a connection to the beauty and diversity of biological life,” he said. “It’s sad for all of us to not be able to do that right now.”
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf