Bayville Residents Pitch in to Help Stranded Seal

The brown and black harp seal had been out of his element for several days, cruising the waters in Barnegat Bay and the mouth of the Toms River.

But it was clear he was not well on Saturday afternoon. He lay  slumped on the sand near Berkeley Island Park, his whiskered snout submerged in the water. One eye looked infected, and his mouth appeared to be bleeding. From time to time he would attempt to eat some sand.

Ralph and Paul Santo and their friends had kept a close watch on the mammal, concerned about his well-being. The 140-pound seal had lumbered up onto the boardwalk of Santo Marina in Bayville on Friday, much to the delight of onlookers, and stayed into the night.

"It was like a carnival at the marina yesterday," said Paul Santo, whose grandfather built the marina in the 1950s. "At least 75 people came out. He seemed much healthier yesterday."

Paul and his brother, Ralph, went out to dinner at the Anchor Inn in Ocean Gate on Friday night. When they returned, the seal was still there.

But by Saturday morning he was gone. The brothers later spotted him sprawled in the sand off Berkeley Island Park and called police.

Patrolman Jon Sperber called the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine and kept watch over the seal.

Jay Pagel, Senior Stranding Technician with the Brigantine facility, arrived with his truck and a cage for the stricken mammal around 1 p.m.

"We are so inundated with them," Pagel said as he pulled a large net from  his truck. "We probably rescue between four and five a day."

Pagel and Sperber managed to gently ease the male seal into the net, then into a cage. Pagel thought he was going to have to wait for more help from the Bayville Volunteer Fire Company. But concerned residents — including Berkeley Township Board of Education President James Byrnes — helped him hoist the seal onto the truck.

Pagel said it would take a little time to determine what was wrong with the seal.

"We're not going to know anything until we get some blood from him," he said.

"I feel like I'm related to him," Ralph Santo said, as he watched the Marine Mammal Stranding Center truck lumber over the sand and onto the roadway leading out of Berkeley Island Park. "I've been with him for two days now."

Check back to Berkeley Patch for an update on the seal's condition.