Li Bo, reporter of this newspaper, Liu Lishan
Reed flowers flying, alkali puffs red... As the beautiful ecological picture unfolds in Panjin, the western Pacific spotted seal, a national first-class protected wild animal, comes ashore from the Sandaogou waters of the Liaohe estuary, adding a touch of flexible color to Panjin in late autumn.
On October 25, information officers from the Panjin Wetland Conservation Association detected seven Western Pacific spotted seals on the south bank of the Sandaogou at the mouth of the Liaohe River, and judged them to be the western Pacific spotted seals migrating this year. On October 26, staff from the Association's Marine Animal Conservation Laboratory found 12 more Western Pacific spotted seals ashore during ongoing monitoring.
In 2020, association staff monitored and documented the complete migration to freeness of the western Pacific spotted seals. This year, as Panjin City continued to increase its protection efforts in terms of ecological environment and biodiversity, the staff of the association came to the "monitoring post" earlier than last year. They were pleasantly surprised to find that the Western Pacific spotted seals were 30 days earlier than last year.
The western Pacific spotted seal is the only pinniped animal that can breed in China's waters, and they migrate annually to the Liaohe estuary of Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Sea, one of the eight breeding areas of the global spotted seal. The western Pacific spotted seal feeds mainly on marine animals such as fish, crustaceans and cephalopods, and mostly barracuda in autumn and winter, while barracuda is abundant in the Liaohekou area. In recent years, Panjin City has implemented the development concept of "ecological city", unswervingly followed the road of "ecological priority and green development", continuously improved the ecological environment in the region, effectively improved the water quality of the Haihe River, and gradually increased the number of marine species and populations in the Liaohe Estuary, which has also become the main factor of the "early homecoming" of the western Pacific spotted seal.
After entering the Panjin area, the western Pacific spotted seals will give birth to pups on the ice floes, and from March to April of the following year, the cubs enter the shallows of the Liaohe estuary and gradually fatten up, and gradually swim away in May. Last year, the number of landfalls monitored in the liaohekou waters reached 181 at its peak; this year, under the four-level linkage protection mechanism of "cities, departments, civil protection associations and citizens" that has been formed, it is expected that the number of seals in the western Pacific Ocean is expected to increase steadily compared with last year.
【Source: Liaoning Daily】
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