Seals Are Back Along The Jersey Shore

HIGHLANDS, NJ — If it's cold and frosty out, it can only mean one thing: 'Tis the season for harbor seals to make their annual return to the Jersey Shore.

"I personally haven't seen any of them yet, but we've been told they're back," said Pete McCarthy, a park ranger with the National Park Service and whose job it is to oversee operations for the 1,665-acre park. (The Sandy Hook Unit, which is part of Gateway National Recreation Area, is run by the National Park Service.)

"Some were spotted in Sea Bright last week," McCarthy said on Monday, Dec. 23. "And they'll pop up at low tide at the southern end of Sandy Hook, on the low-tide islands near the bridge. We want to get the word out early so people can keep a respectful distance."

Yes, now that we've entered the thick of winter, expect to see harbor seals pop up all along New Jersey beaches, from Cape May to Sandy Hook, plus in the back bays. Harbor seals can be seen as far south as the Carolinas, said McCarthy, but are primarily concentrated off New Jersey, where they appear to love our cold and fish-rich waters. On the rare occasion, grey seals and harp seals can also be seen in New Jersey, but it's mostly the Atlantic harbor seal, he said.

Seals have lived off the coast of New Jersey for many years, but their population is steadily increasing every year, according to Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.

These harbor seals are born in the summer in the much colder waters off Nova Scotia, Maine and Massachusetts, and they migrate south to New Jersey every winter. So the seals that are coming here now are the youngster or teenage seal pups.

"They are on the beach or docks to rest! These youngsters are only a few months old, and they just did a marathon swim from up north," said Sheila Dean, a manager at the Marine Mammals Stranding Center, in a Facebook post shared by the National Park Service. "So please stay 150 feet back and let them rest."

Along the Jersey Shore, seals can commonly be seen lying in big groups on sand bars, rocks, islands or beaches. During a particularly cold snap in January of 2018, this seal even hauled itself out on a floating ice hunk in the middle of Sandy Hook Bay, making locals think New Jersey had turned into the frozen Arctic.

"They start to migrate to this region when the water temperate starts to drop," said McCarthy. "So I'd say they start coming in December every year and be seen right through March."

However, a pair of seals were even spotted in the Hackensack River in North Jersey last April, a sign the river is getting cleaner.

Harbor seals especially like the Sandy Hook peninsula, because it is relatively isolated from people and they can hunt fish in Raritan Bay, McCarthy said. Skeleton Hill Island, which is really not much bigger than a sandbar, is a favorite wintertime haul-out spot, and as many as 100 seals can be seen there at a time. Seals sleep on land during the day and hunt at night. Sandbars are places for them to rest, relax, digest food and enjoy sunshine.

Groups of harbor seals tend to stay within 15 miles of the shoreline and they are also social animals, according to the National Park Service. It is rare to come across a lone seal by itself.

If you come across a seal in New Jersey this winter, don't reveal its location

Wildlife experts say if you see a seal in New Jersey this winter, please don't post to social media revealing its location.

"The absolute worse thing you can do is post a photo and location of a seal on social media," said Dean. "They don't need people near them. They will run back into the water, or they might bite you! As far as they're concerned, you are a predator. Also, who's benefit are you really thinking about when you take a selfie with a seal?"

Don't worry about the seals needing food; they are perfectly capable of hunting fish and have been doing so for months. And don't worry about seals being cold: Underneath their fur is a thick layer of fat (blubber) that allows them to stay comfortable in cold water. Incredibly, seals can dive up to 1,500 feet and hold their breath for as long as 40 minutes.

And keep your distance for your own safety. After all, seals are wild animals.

"If you see them you should avoid them. If you're 100 feet away, stay 100 feet away," said McCarthy. "These are large marine mammals, and with any wild animal you can't predict what they are going to do."

Harbor seals are a federally protected species. Because harbor seals eat many of the same fish that are commercially fished up until 1960 there was a bounty on them, according to the National Park Service. For example, in Canada, Norway and the United Kingdom it is still legal to this day to shoot harbor seals when protecting fisheries or fish farms.

However, in the U.S. with the passing of the Clean Water Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act in the early 1970s, seals are now protected and cannot be killed. The Protection Act made it illegal to capture, kill or harass seals or other marine mammals. Over the last decade, their population has seen a "dramatic rise" at Sandy Hook, according to McCarthy.

In New Jersey, seals' only real predators are sharks (back in 2017, volunteers rescued this seal that had been bitten by a shark), and motorboats. That same summer, a seal was found injured in Barnegat Bay, where it had been hit by a motor boat.

"We had to amputate its flipper off," said Schoelkopf. "We felt pretty bad about that one. It was probably a clammer out in the early morning in Barnegat Bay and didn't even see the seal."

But if you do come across an injured seal this winter, call local police or the Marine Mammal Stranding Center at 609-266-0538. They are open 24/7, and will send someone to check on the seal. Do not try to help the injured seal yourself.

Keep reading about seals and other wildlife in New Jersey:

Not Alaska, But New Jersey: Watch This Seal On Ice At Sandy Hook (January 2018)

Stranded Seal Rescued Wednesday in Middletown (February 2017)

Seals Spotted In The Hackensack River In Secaucus (April 2018)

Watch Seals Being Released At Sandy Hook (June 2017)

Coyote Spotted at Sandy Hook National Park (January 2016)