East Coast sees rise in stranded seals

PHILADELPHIA, May 19 (UPI) -- The Marine Mammal Stranding Center of Brigantine, N.J., says it has rescued twice the usual number of harbor, harp and gray seals at the Jersey shore this year.

Bob Schoelkopf, the center's founder and director, says since January, fierce storms winter storms and early spring pushed an inordinate number of the mammals off of their migratory course to the Arctic, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday.

Some animals had been left behind malnourished, some had been injured by fishing equipment and some had been bitten by other animals. The facility, which usually houses 20 of the mammals, has occasionally been overwhelmed, the newspaper said.

"We've just never seen this many over the course of one winter," Sheila Dean, the center's co-director, said. "It isn't just seals, it's other animals, too -- like the whale that was found on the beach (in Mantoloking, Ocean County) and brought in last week."

Although seals dwell mostly in the Arctic, some species such as harbor seals have made their homes as far south as the northern Chesapeake Bay, Laura Bankey, manager of conservation for the National Aquarium in Baltimore, said.

The Atlantic meets the Delaware Bay at the New Jersey coast and becomes a good landing spot for wayward sea creatures in stormy years, the Inquirer said.

"The weather created a lot of problems," Schoelkopf said. "Some (seals) couldn't make it back to their usual breeding grounds up north in time to give birth. And this coast is like a funnel for these species."