Marine Mammal Stranding Center,
Brigantine New Jersey
Not just an industrial wasteland, New Jersey’s 1500 miles of bay-front and coastline are home to thousands of marine species

By Joseph M. Cocozza Jr.


Intro


A summer evening, on a beach just north of Atlantic City, a crowd gathers. A hooded seal lays motionless, moaning into the summer night. A dozen yards from the water’s edge he is unable to move; the 450lb animal is obviously in pain.

The lights of the seaside resort illuminant the night sky as this stranded piniped is surrounded by a dozen humans. A new age mother and daughter approach the wounded animal. The 4-year girl sympathetically pets the neck of the seal. A local cop nods approvingly as he radios in to report of the marine mammal stranding.

Within 15 minutes of the call, a rescue unit from the Marine Mammal Stranding Unit has arrived to take charge. Exiting the vehicle, Bob SCHOELKOPF, sees what is going on and is aghast. He promptly removes the little girl from the seal and chastises the police officer for letting a child near a potentially dangerous animal.

“All seals have a natural sense to bite or scratch.” Bob reports “(Moreover) a hooded seal can be quite a nasty animal. It has a bite like a pit bull and has big claws and they can nail ya pretty good.”

Bob has the scars to prove it; he shows me claw marks on his arms and chest. Getting clawed is all in a days work for Bob; he is the director of the Brigantine New Jersey Marine Mammal Stranding Center,

Bob’s weathered skin shows the signs of countless years on the water. His underwater credentials go back to the Vietnam War. Bob was a Navy Corpsman assigned to Marine Force recon. Part of his special operations training was as a combat diver. In 1969, he was wounded severely enough that he was sent to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital. By then, he was a short timer and he took an early out. He used his diver training to get a job as a dolphin pool cleaner at an Aquarium in South Philly called AQUA-RAMA.

Soon Bob took over as manger and for 7 years performed with dolphins in shows. He made some positive changes to make captivity more humane for the dolphins. But he was not comfortable with the idea of dolphins living in an indoor facility and performing 13 shows a day, 7 days a week.

In the 1970s, The Federal Government had passed the Marine Mammal Protection act. (See Sidebar) However, New Jersey had no agency or facility that could take care of stranded marine mammals. As Bob puts it, “State fish and game would have no idea what to do with these animals. If one lay on the beach, it would lay there until it finally died or was swept out to sea. No one would, respond. …. “

Therefore, in 1977, Bob and his wife decided to start the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. Guts, passion, hard work and determination overcame any lack of business acumen.

New Jersey is a densely populated state with citizens of many different ethic groups. Similarly, there is diversity in Jersey coastal waters; the shared home of multiple marine mammal species, including:

 - Harbor Porpoise & Dolphins: (Bottlenose, Common, Risso's), Spotted , Striped &,Atlantic White-Sided).
- Seals: (Grey Harbor & Hooded)
- Sea Turtles (Greens, Kemp's Ridley, Leatherback & Loggerhead)
- Whales (Fin Whale, Goosebeaked, Humpback ,Minke, Pilot , Pygmy Sperm, Atlantic Right & True's Whale)

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) is a private, non-profit and the only organization in New Jersey authorized to both rescue and rehabilitate marine mammals.

The MMSC has federal authorization by a letter of agreement with NOAA Fisheries. The MMSC has achieved the highest level of stranding response, which allows them to offer:
1. First Response.
2. Triage and transport
3. Rehabilitation.

The center has a strong background in marine mammal biology, husbandry, physiology and life history science. The center has a one of kind Intensive Care Unit, that is key to successfully returning rehabilitated animals to the wild. (see ICU side bar)

Dr. Janet Whatly of NOAA values the independent stranding centers like MMSC, as she puts it. “We at NOAA work with the stranding networks and other scientists to help with stranding response and scientific investigation. The stranding community has made substantial advancements in the science over the past decade.” The need is great.


In 1999 alone, more than 3000 marine mammals stranded on U.S. shores. A stranding is defined as when marine mammals (or sea turtles) swims or floats into shore and become stuck in shallow water. Unfortunately, the majority of stranded animals are found dead.

In the science of the stranding, knowledge can be gained from either live or a dead animals. As Bob puts it, “Marine Mammals are an ”indicator” species. Sort of a canary in the coal mine.” The health of coastal waters is determined by the health of marine mammal stocks.

Bob points out that not much can be done to totally prevent stranding. “It’s a natural occurrence, for the most part, everything dies. If animals die close to shore, the currents wash them up on the beaches.”

But, just as there are many reasons why a person goes to a hospital emergency room, there are many reasons why marine mammals strand. Such reasons are: illness, algal blooms, storms and starvation. There is very little humans can do to ameliorate these “natural” causes.

However, there is much people can do to prevent “human caused” stranding. I.E.: injuries due to boat strikes, pollution exposure, trauma, fishery entanglements, habitat destruction and sonic pollution.

In populated coastal areas like New Jersey, there is a large volume of vessel traffic. Most marine animals collisions are preventable. Nevertheless, there has been an increase of turtle damage in the back bays because of Personal Water Craft. As Bob puts it, “ These turtles feed all summer in the back bays. Turtles are very unknowledgeable about Jet Skis. So when the turtles come up to breath, there is a boat on them and they are slammed. “

Worse yet, are the offshore speedboats moving at 75 mph. Nothing can move out of their way. When dolphins come up to breath they can be killed.

A couple of summers ago, a 57ft Fin whale had its spine split wide open. The whale was hit by a large freighter. The congestion of shipping traffic apparently disorientated the whale and he was hit when she had to surface for air. The carcass of the dead whale washed up on shore.

But if strandings are inventible, why should we be concerned about them, after all its natural selection. Bob retorts “But its also natural selection if a person wanders on to highway and is hit by a car. You do not say you are dumb enough to walk on a highway, and let him lay there. No, you help him. Dolphins are a living thing and shit happens.”

Human Encroachment of habitat has changed the survival equation for these marine species. It is not feasible to reverse shore front development; however there are many thing people can do to mitigate the damage. Common sense does not cause a dime.

The Die Off of “87”


In 1987, the MMSC was the first to recognize the Bottlenose die off problem. Bob estimates that half of all of the East Coast’s bottlenose dolphins died that year. In NJ alone 90 dead or dying dolphins stranded in a two-month period. The MMSC brought this to the attention of the federal government.

At first, no one knew what was killing the dolphins. Some scientists said the symptoms where similar to military chemical weapons. Eventually it was determined that a virus similar to cholera had killed the dolphins.

Increasingly and researchers they were looking off the coast of Jersey and saw that dump sites where they dumping all types of toxic chemicals. The fear was that if dolphins were affected by an agent in coastal waters, that same agent could affect the food chain and people who utilize those waters.

Bob’s personal recollection of that summer reflected intense frustration. “We’d get to a beach and there would be a dolphin with the skin sluffing off its face. The mouth had black lesions the teeth had fallen out. “


Education and Outreach

In addition to rehab and scientific study, the MMSC has educational outreach programs that go a long in educating the public. They have a small museum and Bob personally takes groups on beach walks and educates people the ecology of the barrier islands.

The MMSC also collaborates with local divers. Recently, Tom Mattox and Gene Petersen from East Coast divers helped to recover and rescue a Sea Turtle. The turtle entangled in fishing net on a shipwreck. The divers got radio approval from the MMSC and cut the animal free and brought it onboard where they resuscitated it.

Underwater threats to dolphins and turtles are potential threats that effect divers. An example is the masses of discarded fishing line that shroud the shipwrecks on New Jersey.

Bob explained, it. “When a porpoise is diving their sonar is on that focused on food. If it swims near a wreck, the porpoise can catch a pectoral fin or tooth on fishing line and it will die. I can’t tell you how many pictures of dead porpoises and dolphins I have seen with line twisted around their bodies.”

So, what can we as divers do. Once again, I defer to Bob’s wise words. “ We have encouraged local wreck divers to take a little time at the end of their dive and do a clean up of the wreck. So after you get your lobsters, pick up the sinkers, cut some of the mass of fishing line and put the stuff in your goddy bag. We you get back to shore dispose of it properly. The small effort in doing this could save the life of a dolphin or novice diver (kidding).”

I followed Bob’s advice. Last weekend, I went diving on one of my favorite shipwrecks the SS Mohawk, after 25 minutes at 80fsw, I could not find any legal lobsters so I decided to spend the rest of my dive cutting fishing line off the wreck. That dive I did not find any lobsters but my goodie bag was stuffed with monofilament. In light of what I now know, it was a good day of diving.