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Todd German at the Seal Rescue Centre

Working at Sea Life

I'm the Senior Aquarist at Scarborough Sea Life and Marine Sanctuary. My job here involves helping to look after all our animals from seals to starfish! I have always been interested in marine life and studied a BSc Joint Honours in Marine Biology and Zoology at Bangor University.

Within roughly two weeks of starting at Scarborough Sea Life, we rescued an injured seal pup from the South Bay in Scarborough and called her Gilly. Gilly was very special to me as she was the first rescued pup I helped nurse back to health. Gilly was very lucky as she was really poorly when she first arrived at the centre and although she wasn't in our new Seal Rescue Centre, she made a fantastic recovery and was recently released back into the wild.

St. Martin's pupils help to celebrate the opening

The seal rescue process

Seals may need rescuing for a number of reasons and these can include being abandoned or injured. At Scarborough Sea Life Centre we will take rescued seal pups through four of our five main stages. We call these the five Rs – Rescue, Rehabilitation, Recovery, Release and Retirement. Rescued seal pups only go through the Rescue, Rehabilitation, Recovery and Release stages.

Rescue

We will assess the seal and if it needs help, we will remove it from danger and bring it to our Seal Rescue Centre for treatment.

Rehabilitation

At this stage we administer any medicine the seal may need and monitor it regularly. We also feed the seal every four hours.

Recovery

At the recovery stage, the seal is generally feeling better after resting and finishing its medication. The pup will be moved into our resident seal pool where he/she will learn how to compete for food and interact with other seals.

Release

Once the rescued seal has reached an ideal weight of approximately 35 kilos and we are happy that he or she will survive in the wild, we will release it.

Retirement

In some circumstances, seals cannot be released back into the wild. This can be because they are too used to human contact or they have medical problems preventing them from having a high chance of success in the wild. This is when Sea Life Centres will offer a permanent home to the seal.

If anyone does come across a seal they think needs our help, we ask that they call us on 01723 373414.

Todd German, Senior Aquarist, Scarborough Sea Life and Marine Sanctuary.