NJ: Woodbridge snow plow driver finds

[madmax]

wandering seal.

WOODBRIDGE — "A township snow plow driver was startled to find a seal wandering along Sixth Avenue in the Port Reading section of the township early this morning.

The adult harp seal was discovered about 5 a.m., and police and a township control officer were notified. Officials then reportedly dragged the animal into the Woodbridge River, according to Robert Schoelkopf, founding director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.

Several attempts to put a net around the seal failed. Town employees workers eventually grabbed the animal with a mouthpiece normally used to capture dogs, Schoelkopf said.

Schoelkopf said he was told Woodbridge employees dragged the seal into the Woodbridge River, which could have badly injured animal and left it in an unfamiliar waterway, uncertain which way to go.

Schoelkopf said he hoped the seal would swim out to Arthur Kill, but if it went upstream, the seal would be in narrower water, probably without food. It could wander on land again, Schoelkopf said, and he hoped people would call his center.

Seals are arctic mammals that live on ice flows, Schoelkopf said. In cold weather, many are carried by currents and swim south looking for food, Schoelkopf said".


More: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/woodbridge_snow_plow_driver_fi.html

Formerly of NJ - glad I'm out. :evilgrin:

Comments at the end of the article are interesting.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. Clubs seem to work well enough... did they try that approach?

[madmax]

11. Poor little bastid

I hope he's alright.

[dugaresa]

2. you know it's cold when the seals come to town

[Petrushka]

3. [**tsk**] --- I thought you were going to say he found Jimmy Hoffa.

:hide::yoiks:

[madmax]

7. Very good!

:rofl:

[LiberalEsto]

4. I can't believe it swam in that filthy water

The Arthur Kill and surrounding waters are nothing but sewage and garbage. I hope the poor thing makes it to someplace nicer.

Another former NJ resident here.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Why do you think it was out walking around?

Poor thing was just saying "Fuck this, I'm WALKING back to the ocean."

[LiberalEsto]

6. Could be! True story about Woodbridge:

Twenty-some years ago I worked as a newspaper reporter in NJ. Woodbridge was one of the towns on my beat.

The guy who was mayor was complaining about the horrible garbage that was washing up on the town's waterfront. The garbage, which included hypodermic syringes and other hospital waste, was falling off NYC garbage barges that were heading for the notorious Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island. This was the largest landfill in the world.

He staged a media event and invited tv and newspaper reporters on a boat tour of the filthy waters and beaches. I was one of the reporters. It was sickening. The stench was appalling, and the waterway was completely covered with floating trash. I'd never seen anything like it in my life, and I had been working as a reporter for more than 15 years at the time. The boat ride was cut short, because almost immediately the boat's propeller got tangled in plastic shopping bags. This was not a waterway, it was a garbageway.

As I recall, NYC refused to do anything to fix the problem. It took years of lawsuits before the city was forced to install floating booms to keep trash from drifting away from the barges. The landfill was finally shut down by the EPA in 2001, about a year after I moved to Maryland.

[madmax]

10. Damn, I'm getting old

was trying to remember who the hell the mayor was at that time. Was is Zirpollo?

[LiberalEsto]

13. JoJo DeMarino nt

[madmax]

8. If you're famliar with Port Reading

where the little guy was found it's gawdaweful there. Not just the water, the air - oil refineries spewing that smell of rotten eggs. So gross.

We moved to NC 2 years ago and I feel like I died and am in the Promised Land. I <3 it here. Told the husband if I knew it was this nice here I'd have made you move years ago. Or, left ya and come anyway :evilgrin:

[ddeclue]

9. Morans.. did they ever think to call in a vet or a wildlife expert?

FACEPALM..

[madmax]

12. Nah, they from Joisey

What's wildlife?? Oh yeah, it's between Long Branch and Cape May. :evilgrin:

[JoeyT]

14. Thank goodness it was a seal.

From the title, I was thinking I was going to click on it and the next words would be "a body".