Other marine life

Our brief covers purely marine mammals - chiefly cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and seals; the only other marine mammal in the UK is the European Otter which lives in coastal habitats in Scotland but is a freshwater animal elsewhere in the UK.

Despite this, we frequently go to the aid of sea birds, whether stormbound and exhausted, fallen victim to oil and other pollutants, entangled in debris or otherwise in need of our aid.

Turtles are occasional visitors to the North Sea, particularly Leatherback Turtles which are now recognised as part of the UK's native fauna rather than occasional vagrants. There have been no recent strandings on the east coast but live animals have been recorded as seen at sea on a regular basis.