sharks.JPG

Portland Aquarium visitors get their first look at the facility's sharks and rays on opening day in December.

(Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian)

More than 200 marine animals died this spring at the

from starvation, infection, high temperatures, animal-on-animal attacks and unknown causes, according to a

obtained by The Oregonian. Among the casualties were bamboo sharks, sea horses, garden eels, sea stars, crabs and dozens of fish.

Documents

Barbara Baugnon, a spokeswoman with the

, which helps enforce state animal-cruelty laws, said her agency is investigating the nine-month-old aquarium. She declined to provide specifics.

During the period covered by the death log, Feb. 18 to May 16, aquarium owners acknowledge that the facility has gone without regular veterinary services. The aquarium's former veterinarian said that even when he was under contract the facility failed to properly quarantine new arrivals and routinely delayed emergency treatment to save money.

Mike Corcoran

Portland Aquarium

Opened:

December 2012

Owners:

Brothers Ammon and Vince Covino of the Boise area.

Address:

16323 S.E. McLoughlin Blvd.

On exhibit:

Sharks, stingrays, octopus, tropical fish, lorikeets, sea horses, eels and reptiles. Owners plan to add otters and puffins

Website:

"I feel those animals were subject to undue pain and suffering to save money," said Mike Corcoran, an exotic animals veterinarian who left in February over what he said were concerns about animal welfare. Corcoran said he repeatedly recommended quarantine procedures that were never put in place.

The log kept by aquarium staffers and provided to The Oregonian by a former employee recorded deaths at the aquarium virtually every day. Corcoran called the death toll "excessive."

Vince Covino, who

, declined to be interviewed but responded to questions submitted by email. He said the aquarium's death rate, which he declined to specify, is consistent with what he's observed at other aquariums. "And in many cases, we believe we have done better," he wrote. "We spare no expense in ensuring our animals have the best health care possible."

Aquariums typically don't share mortality rates, said Chris Spaulding, director of the aquarium science program at

, making it difficult to establish an industry standard.

"The goal is to minimize losses as much as possible," he said.

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"There is loss at aquariums; you can't deny that," said Caroline Emch-Wei, a 25-year-old marine biologist who volunteered at the

in Newport for five years before starting late last year at the Portland Aquarium. "But there were so many deaths that were straight up preventable."

Emch-Wei left the Portland Aquarium shortly after Corcoran and echoes his concerns. "They were cutting corners to save money," Emch-Wei said.

Vince Covino estimates that the Portland Aquarium houses 10,000 animals representing 3,000 species. Given that number, 200 deaths in three months would represent an annualized mortality rate of 8 percent.

By comparison, the much larger Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport estimates its collection at 15,000 animals representing 250 species. Erin Paxton, public relations coordinator for the aquarium, said the Newport facility experiences an annualized mortality rate of "significantly less than 1 percent."

The Covino brothers

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The aquarium's original director, Steve Blair, came to Portland with 25 years of experience with marine aquariums, including a stint as assistant curator at the nonprofit

in Long Beach, southern California's largest aquarium and one of 38 in the United States accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Blair directed installation of the Portland Aquarium but left just days before it opened. He declined to speak about the circumstances of his departure, citing a confidentiality agreement. Vince Covino confirmed that Blair signed a separation agreement.

Corcoran, the former veterinarian, said Blair left because he was butting heads with the owners over animal care and safety. Vince Covino said Blair wasn't the right fit.

New management

Shane Dietz, who succeeded Blair, has 20 years of experience setting up and maintaining aquarium tanks and worked at Petco for 12 years, including stints as an aquatic specialist and aquatic manager. He has no degree in marine biology or a similar field.

Dietz said transportation, a process beyond control of the aquarium, causes 98 percent of aquarium deaths. He explained that fish suppliers sometimes place animals in small boxes that may be flown thousands of miles, sitting on hot tarmacs and jostling in delivery trucks before reaching their destination.

That causes stress, he said, which can lead to infection or disease. Delicate specimens, such as sea horses, sometimes can't recover after being transported, he said.

Dietz said the aquarium acquires other animals, such as cold-water fish and crabs, from fish markets because it does not have a permit from the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department required to collect some marine animals for exhibition. Those animals, meant as food, are often beat up and mishandled. "Unfortunately we can't always bring the animal back from the brink of death," he said.

Quarantine

Aquariums typically quarantine new arrivals for at least 30 days to allow them to recover from the stress of shipping and prevent the spread of disease, according to Corcoran and other aquarium managers.

Corcoran and another former Portland Aquarium marine biologist, Lisa Van Etten, said she believes that insufficient time in quarantine led to many of the Portland Aquarium deaths.

A

kept by aquarium employees and provided to The Oregonian indicates that few of the dozens of new fish and marine animals that came to the aquarium were quarantined for 30 days or more.

Van Etten, who left the aquarium in June, said the entire population in a tank would sometimes die after animals were introduced, which she attributed to inadequate quarantine procedures.

Dietz contended that new animals are isolated for a minimum of 35 days. He said the quarantine log provided to The Oregonian doesn't give a complete picture because he keeps multiple logs for multiple quarantine systems and animals can be moved from one to another. He also said animals may spend time in quarantine before coming to the aquarium, resulting in a shorter quarantine once they arrived.

Veterinary care

Corcoran, now an exotic animal veterinarian in Arizona, made weekly visits to the aquarium and was on call for emergencies, a typical setup for an aquarium of that size, he said. On his weekly visits, he said he sometimes saw animals that had been suffering for days from serious medical conditions. When he asked employees why he wasn't called for an emergency visit, he said they told him the aquarium didn't want to pay the added expense.

Vince Covino said aquarium managers always approved special requests for veterinary care. However, he said some employees and managers sometimes disagreed about what merited an emergency call. "A vet visit is lower cost than replacing an animal, so even if we were only concerned about money, we would be foolish to not call in a vet for the safety of an animal," he said.

Since Corcoran left, the aquarium has not had a veterinarian on contract. Dietz, the aquarium's director, said he's in the process of signing on a Seattle veterinarian who specializes in exotic and marine animals to fill that role.

Meanwhile, the Covinos are in the process of building their third aquarium, scheduled to open in Austin, Texas, in December.

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