Watch Seals Being Released At Sandy Hook

SANDY HOOK GATEWAY NATIONAL RECREATION AREA — The Marine Mammal Stranding Center released four seals back into the ocean at Sandy Hook this past Monday, said center director Bob Schoelkopf.

Monday's release was actually the third seal release the group has done this month, and always at Sandy Hook. They've released 14 seals total so far in June. The center, based in Brigantine, takes in injured seals from all over New Jersey, rehabilitates them and then releases them back into the wild. They choose Sandy Hook for the release because it is remote and usually uncrowded.

One of the injured seals had been bitten by a shark. Another was found in Barnegat Bay, where it had been hit by a motor boat. "We had to amputate its flipper off," he said. "We felt pretty bad about that one."

Still, he said, there is little he can advise boaters to do to avoid hitting seals.

"It was probably a clammer out in the early morning in Barnegat Bay and didn't even see the seal," he said. "The only thing we can do is ask boaters to slow down."

Seals have been off the coast of New Jersey for many years, but their population is steadily increasing, Schoelkopf said. New Jersey's seals are migrating north now, he said, to colder waters off Massachusetts and Maine. That's where these four seals will swim to.