Right now, it's a full house at the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine and it has been for months thanks to a severe winter.
The nor'easters that tore up beaches and dumped snow this past fall and winter also separated baby seals from their mothers, stranding a record number.
"Normally, we'll handle 60, this year since January, we've taken in 100 seals," Bob Schoelkopf of the center said.
There are currently 13 harbor, gray and harp seals at the stranding center. One harbor seal was found on a Jersey Shore beach after it had a run in with a dog. It required surgery to stitch one of its nostrils; there is no word on what happened to the dog.
"If the dog attacked the seal, the dog loses the fight; seals have very sharp teeth and they're infectious," Schoelkopf said.
The seal is also being treated for a viral infection called seal pox, similar to chicken pox in humans. Schoelkopf says it costs about $2,000 to feed and treat each animal that is brought here
"That's for food, medicines and transportation costs," Schoelkopf said.
Once the seals are nursed back to health, they'll be returned to the ocean. The harbor seals can be released off the Jersey coast; the others are released in New England where it's safer and away from commercial fishing nets.
