WESTBROOK (AP) – Seals look up with sad eyes, some too tired or sick to lift their heads. Some have been abandoned by their mothers, others are ill or malnourished. Sometimes they’ve been injured by sharks looking for a seal pup snack.

The Marine Animal Lifeline, which rescues and rehabilitates these seals, has neared capacity for the first time this summer with the number of seals approaching 60.

“We’re pretty much the county hospital. We take anything and everything, and we’re filled to capacity,” founder Greg Jakush said over the sound of barking seals that drifted in through his open window as workers fed the assemblage of seals.

Jakush isn’t complaining. If anything, the organization he created a decade ago has become a victim of its own success.

More people are calling the Marine Animal Lifeline when seal pups are abandoned, he said, and the organization is doing a better job of saving those rescued pups. The combination has led to a population explosion at the facility.

The Marine Animal Lifeline is the largest of a handful of organizations that rescue and rehabilitate stranded seals in New England.

Last year, it handled 805 reports of stranded, injured or dead seals. But there were no more than 47 seals at the Westbrook facility at any given time. Last week, the number swelled to 59, prompting Jakush to put out a call for more volunteers.

“There’s no doubt that he sees more seals than anyone. And thank goodness he’s there,” said Heather Medic, coordinator for marine animal strandings for the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, which handles about 20 seals a year.

The Marine Animal Lifeline handles rescues from the New Hampshire border to Rockland and takes in seals for rehabilitation from across the region.

Allied Whale, which is operated by the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, handles Down East rescues and sends seals to Westbrook for rehabilitation.

During the summer, when the harbor seals migrate to the Maine coast, the Marine Animal Lifeline is hopping. The workers continue a ceaseless cycle of feeding the seals, giving them medicine and vitamins, and cleaning their pens.

The space problem will end later in October or November when the Marine Animal Lifeline moves to a seven-acre site in Scarborough.

For now, Jakush is more worried about his budget than the lack of space. At its current levels, the seals are eating 500 pounds of fish a day. That, along with medicine, consumes a large portion of the $250,000 budget.

The only paid staff are Jakush, along with a veterinarian and three veterinary technicians. The rest are volunteers.

“I guess we’ve been in tough spots before,” he said. “I get more stressed worrying about how we’re going to pay the bills than how we’re going to provide the care. I know we’re going to provide the care.”