On March 3, Dr. Sara Platto, the invited international expert by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) for the rescuing of the seal pups involved in the 2.11 Dalian incident, warned during an interview that “the hunting of spotted seals remains still legal in 9 countries such as Russia, Finalnd, Sweden, Norway, Greenland, Alska (above the arctic circle), Namibia, Iceland, and Canada.”.

Dr. Sara Platto revealed that “depending on the country specific legislation, varying quotas ranging from approximately 5,000 to 100,000 are issued every year, which allow spotted seals to be legally hunted. This implies that a considerable number of seals suffer high survival risks on a yearly basis”.

Such legal quotas on seals are even more alarming and heartrending, compared with their illegal poaching cases on spotted seals in China. Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, CBCGDF’s Secretary-General and a devoted apologist of saving endangered species, commented upon hearing the news that “heartbreaking though is the news, it on the other hand proves that China, by enlisting spotted seals as a national protected animal species, banning their hunting activities, and strictly conforming to relevant regulatory measures, has made an immense contribution to the global endeavor of preserving endangered species”.

“In addition to hunting-related reasons, an equally worrying challenge facing spotted seals is climate change”, Dr. Sara Platto further noted. It is known that spotted seals have to be on shore or move onto ice cubes for reproduction, lactation, resting and molting. Climatic change, primarily in the form of rising global average temperature, has been driving the melting pace of ice cubes at a daunting rate. Hence, without ice cubes to rest on, spotted seals would have much more trouble finding suitable breeding ground during their reproductive seasons.

Dr. Zhou also added that “survivals risks imposed onto spotted seals can be largely termed human. It is the over-industrialization of the human society and their various irresponsible behaviors that have been creating problems to the ecosystem. Climate change is one example. The prevalence of black-market interest chains motivating criminal activities in pursuit of huge profits is another. The market for seal pups is rather lucrative, given their huge demand from aquariums which purchase and train them for profitable seal performances”.

The recently closed Katowice Climate Summit in Poland last December has clearly emphasized the severity of climate threats and called on the whole society to take emergency actions for meeting the 1.5-degree temperature control target. Under this backdrop, and further aggravated by such irrational human decisions as legal hunting permission and profit-oriented poaching, the task of saving spotted seals becomes even more difficult. But this is not the excuse for doing nothing. Dr. Zhou said: “each individual effort is worthwhile. Responsibility should be undertaken. All sectors should come together to save spotted seals from extinction and compile a paean of the hero “

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

By / Lu Lei