HARVEY CEDARS — A gray seal that strayed from the ocean ended up on a busy Long Beach Island roadway before authorities safely rescued the animal, officials said.
The female seal apparently traveled from the beach along a public access path and onto Long Beach Boulevard, where a passerby spotted it around 7 a.m. on February 24 and alerted police.
Officers responded along with the borough’s public works department. Because the seal was sitting in a lane of traffic on the four-lane roadway, workers carefully lifted the animal and relocated it to a safer area on Middlesex Avenue while awaiting assistance from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.
Staff from the center arrived within about an hour and transported the seal to the organization’s facility in Brigantine for evaluation and care.
Although the seal did not appear to be injured, a veterinary exam found the animal to be underweight, according to the stranding center.
For more information about the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, visit marinemammalstrandingcenter.org.
