When a seal, porpoise or other animal in need has been reported along the coast, the nearest seal first aid post is contacted, which dispatches an expert with first aid equipment to the spot as soon as possible. A seal first aid worker is able to judge whether the animal indeed needs help. If it does, the seal first aid worker is able to provide first aid immediately. Sometimes, the animal can be helped on the spot and are released back to sea straight afterwards. For instance, when an animal has to be cut loose that has got itself caught up in a net. Unfortunately, many animals need to be taken in to the SRRC for treatment.
Exhausted baby seals (which have lost their mother) and wounded seals are given oral rehydration salts (ORS) by the seal first aid worker before they are transported. The salts are administered with the aid of a funnel and tube. Meanwhile, the SRRC worker organises its transport to Pieterburen.
Many seal first aid workers are also trained to help porpoises and dolphins. These animals are taken to SOS- dolphin in Harderwijk rather than to Pieterburen.
Seal first aid workers often find seal and other marine mammal carcasses as well. These bodies are taken to the SRRC in Pieterburen for scientific research. If the body is already in a putrefied condition, basic details are recorded, such as size and sex, and the body is taken away to be destroyed.
