A baby seal shut down a New Jersey road with a nap

Police blocked traffic in Harvey Cedars, New Jersey, as a grey seal pup wandered from the beach and fell asleep in the road, rescuers said.

A grey seal pup’s morning detour onto a snowy New Jersey roadway ended with a rescue, a medical check and a well-earned nap.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) said it got a call from the Harvey Cedars Police Department on Tuesday, Feb. 24, after the seal was spotted in the middle of a road. Officers and public works crews blocked traffic as the pup wandered away from the beach, then settled down and fell asleep right there, the center said.

That nap came with real risk. Responders said the young female grey seal pup was in a dangerous spot, especially because her coloring made her look “like a lump of snow in the road,” the stranding center said.

The center’s team transported the pup to its hospital in Brigantine for a medical evaluation. The seal had no injuries but was “in thin overall body condition,” the center said. Her intake weight was 34.8 pounds, and staff estimated her age at about 6–8 weeks.

"This pup likely did not learn how to eat very well on her own after being weaned from her mother," the MMSC said in a press release. "Grey seals only nurse for about two weeks, and once weaned they are completely independent."

While it may seem unusual to find a seal in the middle of a street, the center said it responds to a handful of calls each season for seals that roam up beach access paths into parking lots, backyards and residential roads. Grey seal pups, in particular, can wander off course after being weaned and sometimes get turned around while trying to find their way back to the ocean.

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