Not Alaska, But New Jersey: Watch This Seal On Ice At Sandy Hook

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NJ — At least someone is enjoying this frigid weather! No, this is not Alaska you're seeing. This is actual video footage of a seal relaxing on a piece of ice in the middle of Sandy Hook Bay, shot Dec. 30 by the U.S Coast Guard stationed at Sandy Hook.

The video was taken right off Atlantic Highlands marina, about half a mile from the Sandy Hook Coast Guard station, a Coast Guard spokesperson told Patch on Tuesday. It was shot by boatswain mate third-class Trevor Benson from aboard their 47-foot motor life boat. In the extreme cold we've been experiencing, Sandy Hook Bay has started to freeze over, and ice-breaking boats are needed to run the commuter ferries out of Highlands and Belford. As Patch reported last week, kids and dogs running onto the ice, and possibly falling through, is a big concern this time of year for police along the Bayshore region.

There are hundreds of harbor seals that call the Sandy Hook peninsula home, because it is relatively isolated from people and they can hunt fish in Raritan Bay. In fact, seals sunning themselves on the sandbars off Sandy Hook is a familiar wintertime sight to anyone who knows the area. Skeleton Hill Island, which is really not much bigger than a sandbar, in particular is a favorite winter haul-out spot, and as many as 100 seals can be seen there at a time.

Sandy Hook is one of several harbor seal haul-outs along the northern Jersey Shore.

The seals usually arrive to New Jersey in December from their breeding areas in northern New England, Arcadia and Nova Scotia. Seals sleep on land during the day and hunt at night. Sandbars are places for them to rest, relax and digest food.

"They've been at Sandy Hook for years. But we don't want people getting up close and personal. The seals are there because people can't get to them. They want to rest. Once people start taking kayaks out to see them, they will move," said Bob Schoelkopf, founder and director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, which rescues marine mammals up and down the New Jersey coast.

Related Patch reporting:
100+ Seals Lounge on Sandy Hook Island
Photos of Porpoise Being Rescued from Keansburg Creek
Porpoise Rescued from Keansburg Creek, Led Back out to Atlantic Ocean
Dolphin In New Jersey River Dies