Boise business asks Idaho bankruptcy judge to OK sale for the price of a luxury sedan
Owners of the financially troubled Boise aquarium chain SeaQuest 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, California, 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 ‘has lost millions’
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 that 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 insufficient 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, would be paid only a small fraction of that from the deal, according to the filing. The total to the SBA at closing: $15,028.40.
Aquarium of Boise unaffiliated with SeaQuest
Former SeaQuest CEO Vince Covino and brother Ammon Covino cofounded the former Idaho Aquarium in 2010 at the corner of Cole and Franklin roads in Boise. They operated it for about three years.
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 that he violated his parole twice, allegedly by helping to open SeaQuest locations.
Workers in 2013 blamed the Covinos for the deaths of hundreds of animals at Portland Aquarium, which they owned until its closure in 2016.
Vince Covino later denied Ammon’s involvement with SeaQuest in a Sacramento Bee interview.
The Covinos are no longer associated with SeaQuest. They’re no longer associated with the Boise aquarium, either. It is still operating but was renamed Aquarium of Boise in 2014 and is now run by a nonprofit, according to Nathan Hall, head biologist.
“We don’t have any affiliation with SeaQuest in any way, shape or form,” Hall told the Statesman in December. “But it is at the same site. We’ve worked really, really, really hard to distance ourselves from any sort of connection to them.”
SeaQuest does not have any locations in Idaho. The nearest of the five sites listed Friday on its website is in Layton, Utah, north of Salt Lake City. The company closed its aquariums in Colorado, Texas and Virginia in 2024.
PETA video shows fish flopping
SeaQuest opened its Folsom location in 2018 to fanfare and protest over the company’s track record.
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.”
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 Sacramento 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.
The Idaho Statesman contributed.
This story was originally published February 1, 2025 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Boise business asks Idaho bankruptcy judge to OK sale for the price of a luxury sedan."
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