A GP escapes the pressures of working long hours in a doctor’s surgery by swimming under the sea with grey seals.
Ben Burville gets close to the adorable creatures each week while diving at the Farne Islands on the Northumberland Coast.
The 48 year old has captured fascinating underwater footage of himself holding hands, playing and swimming with the seals.
A GP escapes the pressures of working long hours in a doctor’s surgery by swimming under the sea with grey seals
Mr Burville, who has worked at the doctor’s surgery in Amble, Northumberland, for six years, describes them as ‘clever and curious’.
He said: ‘I have learned from them what they accept and what they find quite fun. ‘I lie on the bottom with them while they are sleeping.
‘It feels nice, you don’t think about work or anything, you are just lying there underneath the sea.
‘Being with nature is really good for your heart and really good for your soul. ‘When I am with nature it makes things calm.’
Mr Burville, has been diving for 30 years after studying marine biology at Southampton University.
He later decided to return to university in Sheffield to study medicine and became a GP.
Mr Burville now splits his time between treating patients and observing the behaviour of grey seals in the north sea.
Ben Burville gets close to the adorable creatures each week while diving at the Farne Islands on the Northumberland Coast
The 48 year old has captured fascinating underwater footage of himself holding hands, playing and swimming with the seals
The doctor, from Morpeth, Northumberland, said: ‘I’m very lucky, I love my job.
‘I kept an interest in marine biology and I took up a researcher post at Newcastle university studying dolphins and grey seals.
‘I have now been studying the behaviour of grey seals for about 16 years.
‘I go diving with them as often as my wife will let me. I go every week when I can. ‘They are very gentle and they use noises under the water.
‘They do things under water which are quite unusual. No one really knows why they do it.
‘I have been really lucky to travel around the world diving and if I could only dive one place again it would be off the Farne Islands.
‘It’s not easy diving, it’s cold water and it is quite challenging. ‘It has taught me to dive in a way which has allowed me to get near them.’
The doctor, from Morpeth, Northumberland, said: ‘I’m very lucky, I love my job’