The blind, haggard harbor seal washed up on Cape May’s shore in March.
Sent to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, it has spent the last few months in its own tank, getting healthy and putting on weight.
The center, which doesn’t have the space or money to keep the seal, has done all it can do. But because the seal can’t hunt, it can’t be released into the ocean.
Unless a new home can be found – an aquarium or a zoo – the harbor seal will be euthanized.
“We’re a rehab, not a display facility,” said Bob Schoelkopf, director of the stranding center. “Bottom line is, if nobody takes him, that’s the only choice we have. ”
While Schoelkopf indicated time was running out, a spokeswoman for the federal agency that oversees marine mammals was more optimistic, saying the stranding center would not be held to a deadline.
Another seal, a gray pup found in Asbury Park, also needs a permanent home. A nor’easter in March tossed it against a 12-foot jetty and broke its back.
“She can’t move her rear flippers,” Schoelkopf said. “But she can still swim quite well. ”
Finding new homes for the seals has been frustrating, he said.
“Most zoos don’t want animals that are marred in any way or deformed,” Schoelkopf said.
The Cape May County Zoo volunteered to take the blind harbor seal, but federal officials found the zoo did not have the proper permits or a licensed facility.
“They are just not set up to take these animals long term,” said Teri Frady, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service in the Northeast.
The Adventure Aquarium in Camden is unable to give the seals a home. Officials there are getting ready to renovate their outdoor exhibits and looking to place their own seals in temporary homes, said Denise Aster, the aquarium’s husbandry director.
“We hoped it could be us,” Aster said, “But with our renovations, the timing isn’t good. ”
The Philadelphia Zoo can’t take them, either.
“We don’t have an appropriate facility for the seals or a license, so we can’t have them here,” said Andy Baker, vice president in charge of the zoo’s animal programs.
A resort in San Diego volunteered to take one of the seals, but Schoelkopf turned down the offer after an inspection.
“There are still some possibilities,” Schoelkopf said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed. ”
Two zoos out west have expressed an interest, “but neither has called us back yet,” Schoelkopf said.
The Fisheries Service is also trying to place the animals.
“No one has laid out a deadline,” Frady said. “We’re confident we will be able to find these animals a home. In the last seven years, we’ve been very, very successful in placing animals that can’t be released back into the wild. ”
Frady acknowledged the stranding center couldn’t keep the animals if it wanted to.
“I think of stranding centers as a hospital,” she said. “You don’t live at a hospital. It’s a care space for an animal that needs treatment now. And you want to free it up for animals that need to be in the hospital. ”
Gray seals can usually be found near ocean shores anywhere from the Mid-Atlantic states to Newfoundland, Canada. Harbor seals can range into Arctic waters.
At the stranding center, the gray seal pup has put on a lot of weight and can now climb out of the water. And Schoelkopf thinks there’s a chance that, down the road, its nerves could regenerate and it could start moving its rear flippers again.
The blind harbor seal is growing accustomed to people. It rushes to feed when its keepers tap on a metal bucket. Fortunately for stranding center volunteers, it knows the difference between a human hand and a fish, Schoelkopf said.
For the moment, it’s living it up in luxurious accommodations.
“He’s in an air-conditioned room in a 25-foot-long tank all by himself,” Schoelkopf said. “Just the air-conditioning is costing us $1,300 a month. I’d like to have other animals with him. But he’s not sighted, and we don’t want to take the risk that he’ll lash out and take a bite.
“We don’t need any other injured seals. “