The picture shows the large cetacean living group found by the expert team. Photo by Chen Bingyao
Beihai, April 26 (Chen Yan) -- The scientific expedition to whale activities in the weizhou island area of Beihai City, Guangxi Province, which has attracted much social and media attention, has recently come to an end, and the whales found in the sea area have been determined by experts from a number of authoritative institutions in China for nearly a month that whales are the first large-scale cetacean living group distributed near the coast that has been found in the Chinese mainland so far.
On April 26, Beihai City, Guangxi Province, held a press conference on the results of the scientific expedition stage of whale activities in the weizhou Island area. The meeting informed the relevant scientific research results, ecological environmental protection in the weizhou island sea area, future whale protection and other issues, and issued a proposal on whale protection.
Yang Guang, dean of the School of Life Sciences and doctoral supervisor of Nanjing Normal University in China, disclosed here that China's sea area is vast and there are relatively many cetaceans distributed, but most of them are distributed in deeper distant waters, and the scientific record of live large cetaceans in the near shore is very rare. However, after their scientific expedition, they found that there are currently more than 10 cetacean individuals that can be identified in the waters of Weizhou Island.
Since March this year, islanders and tourists from Weizhou Island in Beihai City, Guangxi Province, have repeatedly spotted signs of whale activity in the area. This has attracted the attention of many expert teams such as the Weizhou Island Tourism Zone Management Committee and Yang Guang. The expert team began to carry out scientific research and investigation through various channels at the first time, to clarify whale species, living habits, and marine environmental conditions, and accumulate scientific basis for further research, protection and utilization.
In fact, as early as 2015, with the support of the Weizhou Island Tourism Zone Management Committee, the Whale and Dolphin Group of Nanjing Normal University cooperated with the Dugong National Conservation Area to establish an information collection network on Weizhou Island, with 10 whale and dolphin observation and stranded rescue information officers, who have collected some valuable information to provide strong support for the scientific monitoring and protection of whales and dolphins on Weizhou Island.
In 2016, a joint scientific expedition team composed of Guangxi Academy of Sciences, Qinzhou College, Shantou University and the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences also began to pay attention to and conduct research on large cetaceans in the sea. Through on-site photo identification and fishermen's questionnaire surveys, it was found that there were records of Sightings of Brinell's whales in the area as early as the 1950s, and concentrated in the weizhou island-Xieyang Island area from November to April and from August to September of each year.
In addition, the above-mentioned joint scientific expedition team applied large-scale satellite pictures to analyze the environmental characteristics of the sea area and found that the appearance of Brinell whales was significantly related to the chlorophyll content of the water body, the surface water temperature and the seabed topography. Recently, the team is conducting a cross-sectional survey of the entire sea area of Weizhou Island through its own design and production of drones, which will estimate the entire population.
According to the identification of two groups of domestic authoritative experts, the large cetacean species on Weizhou Island are Brydia whales, and some experts prefer the subspecies of Brucelloy whales. However, it is certain that this is the only large cetacean living group found off the coast of China, and preliminary predictions are likely that other large groups of cetaceans will settle in the waters of Weizhou Island for a long time. This scientific expedition to the Whale Population of the North Sea has strengthened the field of ecological research of large cetacean populations.
Chen Bingyao, associate professor of the School of Life Sciences of Nanjing Normal University, believes that cetaceans are the top predators of marine ecosystems and an indicator of the health of marine ecosystems. Bu's whale lives in the waters near Weizhou Island, indicating that the ecosystem in the weizhou island area is relatively healthy, and the food chain is more suitable for cetacean survival.
Although whale populations are currently in good condition in the North Sea, they are more likely to be harmed by humans than other marine animals due to the great concern of tourists and the public.
Lin Deguang, director of the Weizhou Island Tourism Zone Management Committee, said that it will continue to carry out emergency training for whale and dolphin protection for representatives of various industries on Weizhou Island, prohibit close whale watching tourism, and limit vessel interference. At the same time, it is planned to demarcate the whale population protection area as soon as possible, build a whale watching monitoring station, and standardize the operation of whale protection work to prevent various problems in the whale population. (End)