All baby animals are cute. Seal pups are no exception.

One such pup, a spotted seal pup, about 20 days old, was found on an offshore oil extraction platform in Panjin city, Northeast China’s Liaoning province, by nearby residents in late February. Among those who rescued the cute, but initially angry and somewhat aggressive, pup was Li Yue, of the Fisheries Law Enforcement Command team, and volunteer Tian Jiguang.

“The seal pup was found with a fishing net entangled around its neck. Seals, even seal pups, have a strong temper. So when we approached it to remove the fishing net from its neck, it thought we would harm it and turned aggressive like an agitated dog. But the more it struggled, the more the net tightened around its neck. Eventually, it realized that we meant no harm, and allowed us to remove the net from around its neck,” said Tian, founder of Panjin Wetland Protection Association.

“We took care of it for a day, and then sent it to the Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute in Dalian for treatment and examination. Only after we were sure the pup had developed the ability to survive in the wild was it returned to the sea,” said Li, captain of the FLEC team in Panshan County, Panjin. Li generally rescues several spotted seals from the sea or shore every year.

Over the past decade, Li and his teammates have been patrolling the resting areas of spotted seals in the Liaodong Bay by boat. He is familiar with every group of spotted seals in the Liaohe River Estuary National Nature Reserve in Panjin; he knows the heads of the families and those with scars that have been wintering in the bay area for years.

Tian, who has been part of many rescue missions with Li, has made protecting spotted seals his career. To monitor and rescue seals, Tian moved into an abandoned white building in the wetland area in the nature reserve and set up the volunteer organization’s office and exhibition area there. “I have been helping protect spotted seals for 17 years and have rescued about 100 of them,” he said.

With the advancement of technology and better protection of the environment and ecology, the conservation efforts for spotted seals have yielded good results.

“I count the spotted seals one by one every day using high-definition images from drones. On March 25, we counted 398 spotted seals, the highest number we’ve seen this year,” Tian said, adding that the spotted seals can sense the friendliness of the people here as well as the improvement in the ecological environment.