On Thursday, Norddeich seal station in the northern German region of East Frisia released five baby seals from a batch of over 70 pups back into the wild. The flippered creatures had spent the last few months at the station learning to fend for themselves. Each summer the seal orphanage, 100 kilometers northwest of Hamburg in the town of Norddeich, raises between 30 and 80 motherless seals until they are strong enough to be released back into the North or Baltic Sea.

Robert, Kalli, Jack, Inge and Rollo were found in the Wadden Sea on the western coast of Schleswig-Holstein. Others that had lost their biological mothers were picked up off the coast of the state of Lower Saxony. SPIEGEL ONLINE talked to Peter Linau, who runs the conservation center, about the work of saving orphaned seals and delivering them back to nature.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where do the seals which are being looked after in Norddeich come from?

Linau: The seals are usually found by tourists or officials. They are washed up on beaches all along the coasts of Lower Saxony. They're born in June and July and if the currents are particularly strong or the weather's bad, it is possible that the pups get separated from their mother because they are too weak to keep up. They are then unable to surivive without their mothers.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you find them?

Linau: We're usually contacted by officials or beachcombers. We then send one of our employees out to find the pup. We have 50 people spread out all over Lower Saxony who are specifically trained for this. They then bring them back to the station and we first put them into quarantine for about seven to 10 days. They have medical checks done and when they are declared healthy they are transferred to the main station, where they are given a substitute for their mother's breast milk. Eventually they are also fed fish. We keep them there for eight to 10 weeks before we begin preparing them for going back into the wild.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you prepare them for their release?

Linau: They spend two weeks in a kind of large swimming pool. It is very deep and wide so it is almost like the sea. They gain strength and learn to hunt for their own food. We only let them go if they weigh more than 25 kilograms and have passed a final full medical check-up.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How many people work at the station?

Linau: We have 11 full-time employees and veterinarians. We also have more than 50 volunteers, interns and students who help us.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How are seal populations faring in the North and Baltic Sea?

Linau: Fortunately seals are not endangered. In 1988 and in 2002 a viral disease wiped out almost half of the population in this area, but the numbers have recovered and we now have a healthy, sustainable and strong population of seals. Its hard to estimate the exact number of seals in the North and Baltic Sea around Germany, but it definitely amounts to about 20,000.