New Owner Of Woodbridge Mall Aquarium Operated Without A License

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — SeaQuest aquarium at Woodbridge Center mall has a new owner and a new name: Still located in the same location on the first floor of the mall, it's now called Woodbridge Aquarium & Wildlife.

Like its predecessor, Woodbridge Aquarium & Wildlife invites children and customers to interact with fish, birds, lizards and exotic animals, including even snorkel inside their giant aquarium tank.

It's been open since March, but it operated without a license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), according to this April 9 citation from the USDA.

"Although this site has applied for a license, the pre-licensing process has not been completed and no license has been issued," said the USDA.

Also, a child was bitten by one of their rabbits while petting it, said the USDA in that same citation notice.

"On March 22, 2025, a patron took their child in to have an interaction with the facility's rabbits. A staff member accompanied the patrons during said interaction. The child was petting one of the rabbits, as directed by the staff member, and the child was bitten on her left hand by the wrist," said the USDA.

Woodbridge Aquarium & Wildlife did not respond to a request for comment. Woodbridge Aquarium & Wildlife did report the rabbit bite in an incident form, noted the government agency.

On January 16 of this year, the troubled — and bankrupt — SeaQuest sold six of its locations, and all assets at the locations (the animals, tanks, enclosures, etc.) to Z&A Management LLC, owned by Jeff Cox, according to this bankruptcy sale document.

Cox paid a total gross purchase price of $80,000 for all six former SeaQuest locations, and the animals. The plan was Cox would reopen the New Jersey business as Woodbridge Aquarium & Wildlife Center. He reopened the other five SeaQuest aquariums under similar names.

Woodbridge Aquarium & Wildlife has parakeets, cockatiels, chickens (including hens and roosters), a potbelly micro pig, a goat, a rabbit and a guinea pig on site. Under the water, they have sting rays, nurse sharks and fish.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal (PETA) has resumed its criticism of the new business, saying Woodbridge Aquarium & Wildlife is "continuing SeaQuest’s miserable legacy of suffering and exploitation by refusing to improve conditions for the animals."

"At the aquarium, large freshwater fish have been crowded into tanks where the water quality was so poor that the fish were lethargic and barely moving, and nurse sharks and moray eels are forced to live in a tiny tank where they can do nothing but swim in circles with no way to escape each other," said . "Two goats and a pig named George are forced to live in cramped pens inside the shopping mall with no access to fresh air or sunshine and no space to roam."

"In nature, birds fly long distances and engage in complex social interactions within their flocks; nurse sharks are known to huddle together in huge piles; and stingrays enjoy foraging for food and burying themselves in the sand. But at Woodbridge Aquarium & Wildlife, these and other animals are confined indoors and subjected to loud noises and constant human touch, causing them acute and chronic stress."

A group called Stop SeaQuest Woodbridge, which protested against SeaQuest for years outside the Woodbridge Center mall, announced this week on their Facebook page they will resume the protests outside the mall on July 19.

Prior:

SeaQuest Files For Bankruptcy; Fate Of Woodbridge Location Unknown (December 2024)

SeaQuest Owes Woodbridge Center Mall $381K In Unpaid Rent (December 2024)

NJ SeaQuest Put On Probation After Nearly 100 Animals Died There (July 2024)

Flying Squirrel Crushed In Door At Woodbridge Center Mall SeaQuest (2022)