THERE is nothing fishy about the way staff at the Scarborough Sea Life & Marine Sanctuary deal with their visitors.

Five mystery visits this year to study their customer service and focus resulted in an average score of 93 per cent.

Visitor surveys also confirm that the centre at Scalby Mills is a welcoming magical underwater world where the contact with people is as much of a delight as the close encounters with everything from sharks and otters to seal pups and sea horses.

It is reason enough for the organisation to pitch for the Tourism and Hospitality Business Of The Year in The Press Business Awards 2007.

The venture takes pride in its role as ambassador for animal care on the east coast, and the community helps in its work of rehabilitating sea creatures.

For instance, this has been the second successive year that the sanctuary has successfully bred its own Humbolt penguins.

The penguin sanctuary houses 15 of the species which has dwindled to a mere 1,000 pairs in the wild.

This year also saw the release of Myrtle, one of the sanctuary's rescued sea turtles, back into the ocean off the coast of Gran Canaria.

The sanctuary's hospital has been busy caring for grey and common seal pups that have been rescued locally. There are also four resident adult seals; Bruno, Mando, Bubbles and Ed.

Big attractions are Eric and Cherry, the sanctuary's resident Asian short-clawed otters, who inspire regular talks about otter conservation.

Scarborough Sea Life regularly reward the Scarborough community for its effort and support, both in conservation and in charity events. It offers year-round privilege passes for local residents and more than 4,000 residents took advantage of the offer this year.