‘Profit-driven, exploitive hellhole’: Records show 100 animals dead at SeaQuest Woodbridge

The New Jersey Department of Environment Protection has handed SeaQuest, the aquarium in the Woodbridge Center mall, a 32-page notice of violation, detailing SeaQuest’s failure to take proper care of its animals which has resulted in almost 100 deaths since it opened in 2019.

The notice, which lists 12 violations of state law and Exotic and Nongame Wildlife regulations and permits, detailed the allegations with videos and photographs from two anonymous complainants at SeaQuest.

An expert veterinary witness also provided interpretations of the limited records sent to the DEP from SeaQuest.

SeaQuest did not reply to repeated attempts for comment.

However, SeaQuest has paid a $2,500 fine levied by the DEP for the violations.

If SeaQuest fails to meet the other conditions in the DEP notice, it is at risk of losing animal exhibitor permits and having all its wildlife confiscated.

This list of violations comes at the same time as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) discovered records showing the deaths of almost 100 animals at SeaQuest since 2019.

“SeaQuest is a profit driven, exploitive hellhole that will continue to risk the lives of animals and public safety in order to make a quick buck,” said PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Michelle Sinnott, “That’s why PETA is urging everyone to never buy a ticket to this place again and hopefully get this shady operation to close up shop and get out of town.”

Here are some of the major violations listed by the DEP:

• Two Asian water monitors frequently attacked each other for at least two years because of the size of their enclosure and its poor quality. This led to both water monitors being euthanized because of the injuries they inflicted on each other, and signs of gout caused by dehydration and poor care.
• A female porcupine was found sleeping in the rafters above the shark and eel tank after ripping off the mesh of its enclosure and finding its way to the aquarium.
• Nine giant day geckos were housed together in a 20-gallon tank, only meant to hold about five. Due to the overcrowding, the geckos would often fight with each other, causing life-threatening injuries and possibly prompting geckos to escape, which happened on three separate occasions.
• Public Facebook posts showed members of the public petting animals with a full open hand instead of the authorized two-finger touch and handlers of those animals failing to control the animals properly.
• Members of the public and SeaQuest employees on multiple occasions walked Asian water monitors on a leash.
• Public Facebook posts advertised unauthorized actions like petting a sloth or holding snakes as well as advertising animals SeaQuest is not permitted to have, including a wallaby and an African grey parrot.
• Asian small claw otters, identified as a potentially dangerous species, were on two separate occasions enclosed in a way that potentially could be dangerous to the public, allowing otters to reach outside or the public to reach inside. One of these otters also escaped its enclosure for more than 20 minutes without SeaQuest employees noticing.
• SeaQuest staff failed to properly monitor feeding portals allowing guests to place rabbit food in the otter enclosure and feed the Asian small-clawed otters without supervision.

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According to the DEP notice, SeaQuest also failed to provide proper records and reports to the agency, modified data on those records, failed to check if animals entering the facility were free of disease, and struggled to feed, house and take care of its animals among other violations.

To remedy the violations, the DEP has given SeaQuest a checklist of corrective actions:

• Improve care for all regulated exotic and nongame wildlife.
• Cease all unauthorized interactions with the public and handlers.
• Keep daily interaction logs for each regulated exotic and nongame animal.
• Immediate veterinary care provided to all regulated wildlife.
• Make sure veterinary records specify the species of animal or provide the DEP with the names of all regulated wildlife at the facility.

SeqQuest is also not permitted to add regulated exotic and nongame wildlife or wildlife interactions until further notice.

The records obtained from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife detailed deaths of multiple species at the aquarium including five turtles, a panther chameleon and a sloth.

According to PETA, inadequate care was the probable cause of these deaths.

Suzy the sloth died just a month after arriving at SeaQuest because of reported malnutrition, and Garnet the panther chameleon was found emaciated at his death. according to the PETA report.

The notice of violation alleges that SeaQuest was unable to acquire Dubia Roaches, a large part of Garnet’s diet, for “a long period of time” and instead fed it crickets which can cause parasites.

PETA requested that the United States Department of Agriculture investigate Suzy’s death as a violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act, but SeaQuest has yet to be cited or face consequences for the death.

SeaQuest Woodbridge has been the subject of controversy even before it opened in 2019 with PETA urging the state Division of Fish and Wildlife to deny SeaQuest a permit because of its history in other states.

New Jersey animal activists also protested the aquarium when it first applied to open in Woodbridge and have continued to protest since .

The Division of Fish and Wildlife has sent seven letters to SeaQuest since 2021 due to violations and issues with the facility, according to PETA.

Last September, the state put SeaQuest on a year's probation , stopping it from acquiring regulated animals and adding new public interactions because SeaQuest continued to violate New Jersey’s Exotic and Nongame permit regulations by stretching the limits of what public interactions between humans and animal are allowed.

“SeaQuest bills itself as a wholly interactive environment where customers are encouraged to come in, pet, poke, prod and harass these animals all day long,” said Sinnott. “Wild animals don't want to be poked and prodded by the public. They want to be left alone.”

Earlier this year, the DEP sent a letter to SeaQuest pushing it to end public interactions between visitors and animals for at least 120 days due to a mycobacteria outbreak.

This outbreak caused an infection in turtles called “shell rot” which can be deadly and contagious if not treated properly.

The DEP also requested that SeaQuest submit weekly water samples of the turtles’ habitats to ensure the enclosures are free of disease.

While the DEP said it had no further comment on SeaQuest besides the notice of violation, the letter notes that nine turtles entered SeaQuest infected with shell rot in 2022.

These turtles were obtained from an unnamed man in Butler in North Jersey and would spend the next two years infecting other aquatic turtles.

The discovery of the outbreak in 2024 led to all aquatic turtles at SeaQuest being euthanized and prompted the DEP letter.

The 120 days ended May 28 and Sinnott said SeaQuest has continued public interactions and PETA has no evidence to suggest that SeaQuest sent weekly water samples or worked to identify what strain of mycobacteria broke out.

“SeaQuest has been playing fast and loose with New Jersey state law and regulations,” said Sinnott. “As New Jersey has sent increasingly escalating warnings about their conduct, SeaQuest has just gotten worse and worse. We have not seen that this shady facility can comply with the law.”

The SeaQuest in Woodbridge Center is not the only SeaQuest that's the subject of controversy.

The New York Times and ABC News have detailed issues at SeaQuest facilities throughout the country and in the last year, SeaQuest aquariums in Littleton, Colorado and Trumbull, Connecticut have closed. Those facilities also received state and federal law violations.

SeaQuest opened its first location in 2016 and is run by Vince Covino, the founder and CEO.

Covino has been in the aquarium business since 2011 when he and his brother Ammon opened the Idaho Aquarium.

Since then, Ammon has racked up multiple civil and criminal charges running aquariums along with his brother.

In 2013, he was sentenced to one year in prison and two years of supervised release for the illegal trafficking of marine life.

Covino and his co-conspirator, Idaho Aquarium secretary Christopher Conk, were found purchasing and transporting spotted eagle rays and lemon sharks from the Florida Keys to Idaho, without the required licenses.

Covino was not allowed to be employed by any job that dealt with wildlife during his supervised release but would get into the family business just five days after being release from prison, helping his brother run the Austin and San Antonio Aquariums.

He also helped him start the first SeaQuest facilities in Utah and Las Vegas.

Federal court records indicate he was sentenced two more times in 2016 for violating his supervised release, one for three months and another for eight months with more supervised released added on.

Email: emannello@mycentraljersey.com

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: ‘Profit-driven, exploitive hellhole’: Records show 100 animals dead at SeaQuest Woodbridge