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WATCH: Turtle Back Zoo Preps For Injured Sea Turtles' Arrival In N.J.

The Essex County zoo's new Sea Turtle Recovery Center is preparing to welcome its first inhabitants.

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County’s Turtle Back Zoo will soon be getting a few, much-anticipated visitors… sea turtles.

On Wednesday, zoo officials posted a Facebook message that the facility’s new Sea Turtle Recovery Center in West Orange is preparing to welcome its first sick and injured animals.

Essex County officials previously announced that the Turtle Back Zoo will partner with Northfield-based nonprofit Sea Turtle Recovery to open the $2 million facility by the end of 2016.

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According to county officials, the under-construction recovery center – the “first of its kind in New Jersey” – will be a sanctuary dedicated to nurturing and assisting the zoo’s namesake animal.

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The 15,000-square-foot facility will be constructed next to the Sea Lion Sound exhibit, and will have five recovery tanks, a “head start” display for cold-stunned juvenile turtles and life support systems and rehabilitation areas for sicker turtles, county officials said.

In addition, the public will have close-up views of the turtles in the recovery tanks while also learning about the perils they face and current conservation efforts.

“Currently, when endangered and threatened sea turtles wash ashore in New Jersey, they are given short-term care to stabilize them,” county officials stated. “If a sea turtle’s injury or illness requires long-term treatment, then it needs to be transported out of state. The Sea Turtle Recovery Center will provide this long-term rehabilitation and eliminate the long travel times.”

Once the turtles have regained their health, they will be released back into their natural habitats, officials stated.

Watch a time-lapse video of the tank installation at the Turtle Back Zoo below.

Photo: Turtle Back Zoo, Facebook

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