SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium CEO addresses company goals, scrutiny
SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium CEO Vince Covino just wants his company to be understood.
“It’s quite an undertaking — the process of opening a new location and bringing on 45 to 55 people and making sure they are ready for the thousand or so things that go on every single day,” he said during his first visit to his company’s new aquarium inside of Westfield Trumbull Mall since it opened in July.
Since before opening the 17,000squarefoot attraction, the forprofit aquarium has faced local and national criticism for its practices and philosophy.
Much of the public scrutiny has been aimed at SeaQuest’s locations in Littleton, Colo., and Las Vegas. But the publicity has also cast a cloud over the newly opened Trumbull facility and planned locations in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey.
Regardless, the SeaQuest founder said he and his team have been trying to overcome the negative attention.
“You certainly expect that every facility gets better,” Covino said. “You also expect that the current facilities are better next month and next year than they are today — and that’s happening.”
SeaQuest has maintained that media coverage of citations and allegations of animal cruelty in its established aquariums have been misrepresented or exaggerated.
“The reality is that you can go to any aquarium or any zoo in the entire world and you can find something to write about,” Covino said. “I can go through every story (about SeaQuest) and give you the context.”
He specifically mentioned coverage of a company fine for “illegally breeding” otters in the company’s Las Vegas location. According to Covino, the facility received a female otter that was pregnant prior to arriving — unbeknown to the staff.
“If an otter comes pregnant, should we abort the baby of a vulnerable species to avoid a citation? …shame on us if we were to ever consider something so asinine,” he said, adding that the company did the ethical thing and raised four babies before sending them to other locations.
Two of the otter pups are featured at SeaQuest Trumbull.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials suspended SeaQuest’s license at the company’s Littleton location in the spring after dozens of complaints and reports of injuries at the facility were filed after its opening last summer.
The same state issued a ceaseanddesist order against the same aquarium after state officials determined the site failed to pass numerous Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act inspections of its bird exhibit.
According to Covino, PACFA filed the order because of the number of parakeets in the exhibit.
“They did it because they feared the parakeets would be hurt,” he said. “We run the parakeet facility in all our cities the exact same way that we do there, but that organization said
that’s not a safe environment for the parakeets. …The animals were safe; the guests were safe, and we were doing everything we could to make sure of that.”
As part of the work to improve his company’s reputation and image, Covino said SeaQuest has been looking into accreditation through the Zoological Association of America.
“We think that’s a good place to start, but once we get one place accredited, we actually believe it’s going to be pretty quick for the rest to follow suit,” Covino said.
The accreditation would be for its location in Fort Worth, Texas.
Idahobased SeaQuest may have its work cut out for it, however.
“It’s a stringent process,” said John Seyjagat, executive director of the ZAA. “(Our) accreditation is a very high benchmark, and it not only includes your facility.”
According to Seyjagat, the organization, which claims to be the second largest trade association in the zoological sector, has yet to hear from SeaQuest about its pursuit of accreditation.
To be an accredited facility, he said, staff members must join the ZAA and seek membership in the professional category before the facility seeks accreditation. The operator then has to apply to have their facility sponsored by another accredited facility.
Seyjagat added if an operator makes it beyond that portion, they are subject to an inspection by ZAA representatives who look at the facility for aesthetics, educational programs, research sustainability, safety for staff and animals and more.
The main concern, however is focused on animal welfare and animal staff safety, he said.
Seyjagat said he is familiar with ongoing media coverage of the forprofit aquarium.
Asked if he thought SeaQuest would qualify for accreditation,
Seyjagat said he was unsure, but the ZAA would look at the entire company history.
“You can’t show me one facility that is really nice and prim and proper and then you have five that never meet the approval of anybody,” he said. “They have had some bad press given to them, and if we get an application, we would have to look at it, and we would have to look at what’s the association of all these other entities.”
Regardless of the work Covino and his team try to do to clean up its public image, local activist Leah Haut said SeaQuest’s track record is enough to condemn the company’s newest location, even if she hasn’t been in the Trumbull facility.
“They have a very bad reputation in the industry,” she said. “SeaQuest is the worst of the worst. If you’re going to talk about other aquariums in Connecticut, they don’t have the poor reputation and track record that SeaQuest does.”