On August 10 and 13, 2020, the People’s Court of the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Dalian Changxing Island, Liaoning Province, imposed a lawsuit against Liu XX and other 16 defendants for illegal hunting of precious wild animals and illegal sale of precious wild animals, the first-instance trial is open via the Internet.
The case involved 42 defendants, 7 defendant units, and more than 200 spotted seals involved. The trial was divided into three cases. The first part is the hunting part, involving 16 defendants; The second part is the acquisition, transportation and sale part, involving 11 defendants; The third part is the acquisition part, involving 7 defendant units and 15 defendants. The trial is the hunting part.
The public prosecution agency believed that the above 15 defendants including Liu XX constituted the crime of illegal hunting of precious wild animals, and Sun XX constituted the crime of illegal hunting of precious wild animals and the crime of illegally selling precious wild animals.
During the trial, all the defendants pleaded guilty and punished for the charges made by the public prosecution agency. The case will be sentenced at an elective date.
The Changxing Island Procuratorate charged:
In February 2018, the defendant Wang XX and the defendant Yang XX hunted 4 spotted seals cubs;
In January and February 2019, the defendant Liu XX and the defendant Liu XX and the defendant Yuan XX were divided into twice, and a total of 7 spotted seals cubs were hunted; The defendant Wang XX and the defendant Yang XX hunted a total of 12 spotted seals cubs in two times, and Wang XX hunted a total of 3 spotted seals cubs in two times with the defendant Lv XX; The defendant Chen X hunted 10 spotted seals cubs at one time. Chen X and the defendant Cai XX hunted a total of 7 spotted seals cubs. Together with the defendants Yu XX and Zhao XX, they hunted 4 spotted seals cubs.
In January 2019, the defendant Sun XX and the defendants Sun XX and Zou XX hunted 5 spotted seal cubs; Sun XX and the defendant Sun XX hunted three spotted seal cubs; The defendant Lin XX and the defendant Lv XX hunted two spotted seal cubs. Afterwards, Sun XX contacted Zhai XX (a separate case was handled) and sold the above 10 spotted seal cubs.
The above-mentioned spotted seal cubs were sold by the defendants at prices ranging from RMB 1,000 to RMB 10,000.
Spotted seals struggle to survive
The spotted seal has been upgraded to China's national first-class protected animal in 2020, and it is also the only pinniped animal that can breed in Chinese waters.
Since the 20th century, the number of wild spotted seals in China has declined rapidly. Researchers have used statistical data captured from 1930 to 1990 to estimate changes in the population of spotted seals in Liaodong Bay. The population had 7,100 in the early 1930s and reached a peak of 8,137 in 1940. In the late 1940s-70s, due to over-hunting, the population declined several times, and in 1979 there were only 2,269.
The main reasons for the decrease in the population of Spotted seal are environmental degradation, excessive hunting, and marine pollution. The freezing zone in the Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Sea in China is the southernmost of the eight spotted seal breeding zones in the world. Due to long-term overfishing and recent Bohai oil field development, marine engineering noise, seawater pollution and other factors, they have severely affected the breeding and habitat environment, posing a great threat to their survival.
China listed the spotted seal as a national second-class protected animal in 1988. In 1992, the city of Dalian established a nature reserve on the coast of the Bohai Sea to protect the western Pacific spotted seal. In 1997, approved by the State Council, it was upgraded to a national nature reserve.
When the reserve was first established, the number of spotted seals in Liaodong Bay was less than 1,000. After these years of protection, the number of spotted seals in Liaodong Bay has basically stabilized at around 2,000. However, the protection of spotted seals is far from enough. In the case of the poaching of spotted seal cubs on Changxing Island, the breeding area of these spotted seals was not within the supervision of the reserve.
Since the establishment of the reserve, it has experienced two major shrinkages. Species protection gave way to construction projects, causing some habitats of spotted seals to be excluded from the protected area.
In 2007, for the development of the Changxing Island Port Area, Shuangdao Bay and Xizhong Island, the reserve made major adjustments, reducing the area by more than 1/4. After this adjustment, the reclamation that followed the development of the Changxing Island port severely affected the habitat and migration routes of the spotted seals. The Bachagou area where spotted seals are common on Changxing Island is now hard to be seen.
In 2013, for the development of the Puwan Port and Taiping Bay Port of Dalian Port, the Dalian Ocean and Fisheries Bureau began to adjust the protection area. In December 2015, the review meeting of the National Nature Reserve Review Committee initially approved the readjustment plan for the reserve, and the total area was reduced again by 16.41%. Transfer the 161 square kilometers core area and experimental area of the Puwan area out of the protected area, transfer the 163 square kilometers experimental area of the Taiping Bay area out of the protected area, and transfer the 779 square kilometers core area and buffer zone in the middle of Liaodong Bay out of protection Area. There is not much of the natural coastline left. The spotted seals are being pushed back step by step, facing more security threats brought by shipping!
The inaction of the local government also made the situation of spotted seals more difficult. On February 19, 2019, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) held the Dalian spotted seals protection and anti-poaching seminar. Professor Yu Wenxuan, director of the Institute of Environmental and Resource Law of China University of Political Science and Law and vice president of the Environmental and Resource Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society, pointed out in his speech:
The repeated incidents of illegal use and destruction of species have also exposed problems in administrative supervision. According to relevant laws, the protection of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife involves at least the fishery authorities at or above the county level, the wildlife protection authorities, the marine authorities, the market supervision and management authorities, and the management agencies of protected areas. Inadequate law enforcement and administrative inaction by these agencies are particularly worthy of attention. It is important to note that if the relevant departments cooperate, the frequency of similar incidents may be much smaller.
In 2020, spotted seal has been upgraded to a national first-class protected animal. We look forward to the comprehensive upgrade of spotted seal protection!
Event review
On February 11, 2019, people reported that a large number of spotted seal cubs were found in a breeding farm in Laohutun Town, Wafangdian, Dalian, Liaoning Province. The Public Security Bureau of Changxing Island, Dalian City rushed to the scene after receiving the report and seized 100 spotted seal cubs on the spot.
In the afternoon, Wang Tao, director of the Spotted Seal National Nature Reserve Administration Bureau in Dalian, led relevant staff to Wafangdian to cooperate with the police to rescue these stolen spotted seal cubs. On-site inspections confirmed that 29 spotted seal cubs have died, and 71 cubs have survived. Wang Tao and others properly placed the surviving spotted seal cubs.
Because they were frightened during hunting and were not breastfed when they were concealed, 71 spotted seals cubs that were rescued were very weak and had very poor immunity. Ten more died after being placed.
The 61 spotted seal cubs that survived were sent to Liaoning Provincial Academy of Marine and Fisheries Sciences, Laohutan Polar Park, Sun Asia Ocean World and other institutions for rescue. On April 11, 2019, the first batch of 24 surviving spotted seal cubs were released in the Bohai Sea. On May 10, 2019, the second batch of 37 surviving spotted seals were released in the Bohai Sea.
The suspects involved in the poaching are local residents of Changxing Island. They secretly sailed to and from the natural breeding area of spotted seals on many occasions, stole the newly born spotted seal cubs and sold them to aquariums for exhibitions.
Poaching is rampant
In this case, the police found 100 spotted seal cubs at the scene, accounting for more than half of the average annual cub production of spotted seals in Liaodong Bay. Such rampant large-scale poaching is fatal to the breeding of spotted seals.
An environmental protection volunteer in Dalian said in an interview with the media:
Every year when spotted seals come to the Bohai Bay to give birth, local fishermen drive their own fishing boats to hunt and kill them. They usually choose to go to sea on New Year's Eve and spend about half a month at sea for poaching, and they can make a profit of 300,000 to 500,000 yuan.
Original Chinese article:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/e797FFLcRNVDibTNJmSofA
By / Zhang Daqian Modified / Maggie
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