-
The Marine Stranding Center Saving Jersey Shore Wildlife
by Cassie Hepler Starting in 1978 with a handful of volunteers and a C.E.T.A. grant, The Marine Mammal Stranding Center is a private, non-profit organization. Founder Robert Schoelkopf and his wife, Sheila Dean, along with a small paid staff and volunteers with a wide variety of talents and professional backgrounds, continue to work with the animals. Originally based in Gardner’s Basin in the inlet section of Atlantic City, the Center is now located on the barrier island of Brigantine, which borders coastal New Jersey’s largest wildlife refuge. When we arrived for a tour of the facilities, there was a lone seal who was paralyzed in his back flipper and would be heading…