Shore towns ban plastic bags, say they dirty beaches, hurt wildlife

Bob Schoelkopf took a hose and sprayed down a gray seal pup that remained quiet as two other seals bellowed in their own nearby cubicles.

“This little gray seal pup, a little male, was lucky because he crawled out onto the beach here at Brigantine while we were releasing another seal back into the wild,” said Schoelkopf, founder of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. “It came in with a fishing net wrapped totally around its neck.”

The material acted like a “saw” around the animal’s neck, and had cut through both skin and blubber by the time he was rescued.

The Jersey Shore is literally the end of the road for fishing nets and thousands of other plastic items. Westerly winds carry balloons and shopping bags from inland and they snag on trees like rogue Christmas ornaments. They land on docks and light poles, the last impediments before the open ocean.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/health/environment/plastic-new-jersey-shore-beach-longport-long-beach-brigantine-20180524.html