On February 11, the Changxing Island police of Dalian City cracked a major case of spotted seals poaching. Once the news was disclosed, it attracted the attention of many parties in the society. At present, there are only over 2,000 spotted seals in Liaodong Bay in China. The icy area of Liaodong Bay in Bohai Sea is one of the only eight remaining breeding spots of spotted seals in the world, and it is also the southernmost one. The spotted seals have a pregnancy of 10 months. During the breeding season, they are mostly in pairs, mostly produce a pup.

Spotted seals (Phoca largha) are very cute, so you can't forget the look of it. It is precisely because of this cute image that they have been subjected to cruel hunting by people who do not comply with the law. According to insiders, the pups of the stolen spotted seals will be sold to various aquariums as animals’ performers for humans. Cases of spotted seals being stolen have also occurred in previous years, but most of them are adult spotted seals, mainly used for extracting their genitals.

An environmental volunteer from an island in Dalian said: "Every year, spotted seals arrive at the spawning season in Bohai Bay. Fishermen will drive their own fishing boats to kill spotted seals. Generally, they choose to go to sea at the New Year's Eve and will be at sea for about half a month, the spotted seals of this poaching will probably benefit from around 300,000 to 500,000 yuan. In the early years, the fishermen out of the poaching of spotted seals, they just want male adult spotted seals, the females and cubs are not needed. The number of spotted seals in Bohai Bay has decreased a lot in recent years, fishermen are no longer satisfied with the profits of male spotted seals, and some aquariums will also buy spotted seals from them. The young cubs, now male or female, can sell for a good price. The genitals of male spotted seals can generally sell for more than 10,000 yuan, and the big ones can sell for 20,000 to 30,000. This is the price of the fishermen. In winter, spotted seals are born on the ice, slow in action, and easy to be hunted. In the winter, when you sail a little further, you can often see the blood on the beach is left on the ice."

The spotted seals in Liaodong Bay can only be counted according to the number of thousand. One poaching is one hundred, which is 10% of the ratio. This is a shocking number, so it must be highly concerned by the regulatory authorities and pursue the black underground interest chain behind it. For this reason, the reporter proposed four Questionings:

1. Spotted seals have been stolen many times. Who is responsible?

The fishermen are too eager to pursue their interests and take risks in order to obtain huge profits; the next home that makes fishermen profitable, namely oceanarium, aquarium, etc., in order to create gimmicks and earn profits from tourists. At the same time, the supervision of wildlife protection departments, marine law enforcement departments, and market supervision and management departments are very lacking individual action enforcement. Each department cannot handle and avoid such incidents. Relevant departments of the people's governments at or above the county level shall cooperate in coordination to strengthen the patrol during the breeding season of the spotted seals.

2. Why is the scope of the protected areas of Spotted Seals reduced?

The reporter found that the protected areas of spotted seals have been adjusted since 1992 in the past 27 years, and some areas have been classified as non-protected areas, so that some spotted seals are excluded from the scope of protection. After the scope has been reduced, the protection of species has been affected. In 2018, the Central Environmental Protection Inspection Team held accountability for the illegal implementation of reclamation in Changxing Island, where the spotted seals protected area was located.

3. Why wasn’t the source of spotted seals in aquariums and other places be investigated?

Some animal performance venues and restaurants use rare species to make gimmicks, gain benefits, or perform for the opening of a restaurant. Should the phenomenon be stopped, and who will regulate the source of wild animals in the aquarium?

4. How to develop a black interest chain

Fishermen - the domestication of the aquarium / the opening of the hotel opening - the audience / customers, there are many one-stop services that many professionals are willing to undertake; the procedures for the transportation of animal sources in various aquariums are thoroughly investigated, and the opening ceremony is used as a cover for using animal performances. At present, there are about 200 domestic aquariums. It is not difficult to conduct a thorough investigation. It is recommended to check the source of each spotted seals and identify the DNA of the spotted seals in the aquarium, to inject technological power into protection.

To this end, the Environmental Protection Public Interest Organizations have made the following recommendations:

Environmental protection organizations suggest that spotted seals should be upgraded from national secondary protected animals to first-class protected animals in a timely manner according to the degree of endangerment of spotted seals, raising public awareness of protecting endangered species, and strengthening the promotion of relevant laws and regulations on endangered species, enhancing supervision on public opinions.

Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) pointed out to launch a volunteers’ civil protection force, form a strong supervision team to cooperate with the government’s law enforcement departments. The environmental protection organization sets up a reporting hotline for the illegal poaching of spotted seals: 010-68485952, and a reporting website: www.hj123.org. Calling on the whole society to form a joint effort to report on the aquarium’s underground trading chains and illegal trading of spotted seals. Environmental organizations and volunteers play an active role.

At present, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), the environmental protection NGO has issued information disclosure applications to three units in Dalian City:

1. Dalian Spotted Seals National Nature Reserve Administration

2. Dalian Ocean and Fisheries Bureau

3. Wafangdian City Marine and Fisheries Bureau

By / CCTV reporter Tong Ying

Original Chinese news article:

http://m.news.cctv.com/2019/02/23/ARTIaEkzafVKJ5LawjDoirvQ190223.shtml

Translated by / Niu Jingmei