About 120 spotted seals were spotted at the Liaohe Estuary in northeast China's Liaoning Province recently.

The adult seals measure about 1.2 to two meters in length and over 100 kilograms in weight. 

Spotted seals swim south from western Pacific and arrive at the inlet of Liaohe River after breeding in the upper stream freezing zones during the winter.

"Every November and December, the spotted seals enter the Liaodong Bay. They breed on ice from January to February. They appear at Sandaogou sea area of Panjin after the ice and snow melt in March and April. This year, we spotted the largest number of 120 spotted seals at Panjin's Sandaogou sea area so far. With the rise of temperature, the number of spotted seals on river shoal will increase," said Wang Xiaobo, director of fishery office at Panjin City Natural Resource Affair Service Bureau. 

Since this March, the local spotted seal protection and management station has rescued six injured spotted seals. Four of them are being taken care of at the Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, and the other two have been released.

Due to the improvement of the environment and the protection by local authorities, the number of spotted seals has increased from less than 1,000 to more than 2,000 in the past decade. 

(Cover image via VCG)