RI Block Island - The mysterious aquarium animal rescue team has never been busy.

Program manager Sarah Callan looks at the coast through binoculars, and there are growing problems on Block Island in Rhode Island - entangled seals.

When fishing gear, garbage or balloons are wrapped around a gray-sealed neck, it grows as the marine mammal grows (possibly over 800 pounds), and can cause significant injury or death.

Twenty entangled gray seals have been reported to Connecticut-based nonprofits so far this year. This is more than what Mystic usually records every year.

Karan called the spike "shocking".

NBC News is rare with Mystic, working with the Atlantic Ocean Conservation Association and the Block Island Maritime Institute as they set out to get rid of the stamp of birth in the past few months.

Callan and her colleagues are next to a group of seal cubs sunbathing by the water. Their army crawled, trying not to scare the herd, and then sprinted with bright red wooden boards to separate the tangled puppies and shoveled them up in nets at speed and impeccable timing.

Once the puppies were included, the group drew blood, put a tracker on for research, and released his fishing net, thus shrinking his neck.

“We will be able to release seals today to avoid bringing them to our clinic for rehabilitation,” Kalan said. “The sooner we can disband them here, the better.”

This is the team of willful seals that fell into February in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. The seal puppy won the internet with his big eyes and sweet cry, and the public even voted for his name "Chappy".

Sadly, he failed to do this, succumbing to a gastrointestinal problem that was too serious to treat. In a statement posted online, Mystic also said they found some plastic in his stomach, "emphasizing that ocean debris, especially plastic, poses a threat to marine animals."

Some estimates suggest that plastic pollution kills more than 100,000 marine mammals each year.

“The number of animals that interacted with artificial products and debris in the first few months of life is somewhat alarming, and it is directly related to the state of the ocean. … We feel it is our job to help share that information and educate people about the threats we face.”

This is a growing battle that Mystic has not given up.

The team cheered and with the seal, they had just cut off the gallated (rolling motion seals for moving on land) from the net back into the ocean.

"You can give animals a second chance, and they wouldn't usually have it without our intervention," Karan said. "It's a special moment."