Thirty-two are in that center's hospital, said Kim Durham, director of the marine mammal rescue program there. Brigantine's Schoelkopf said that at the rate seals were getting stranded on the Jersey Shore this winter, the number probably would exceed the state's record of 76 in 1996. From 1975, when the Marine Mammal Stranding Center was founded, to 1988, the number of seals found in distress along the Jersey Shore remained in the single digits. The shift in migration patterns has left Schoelkopf's center scrambling to meet the demands of temporarily housing the seals while they are nursed back to health. But when the building arrived, Schoelkopf said, much of the structure was incomplete or defective.
Deep cracks are visible in the fiberglass, rendering the holding tanks uninhabitable.
In winter, an occasional dolphin or other mammal may wash ashore, but usually the seals are the only animals that surface in large numbers. As seals continue to wash up, Schoelkopf warns that their bewhiskered faces belie a grumpy disposition and harmful bite, and that neither humans nor pets should approach one on the beach. Ths website is designed and maintained in cooperation with HelpForMyWebsite.