(ECNS) — China has designated a marine area of 335.43 square kilometers (about 130 square miles) off Weizhou Island in Beihai, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as its first key habitat for Bryde's whales, with fishing banned 8.5 months of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said Tuesday.
The designation fills a gap in the protection of large whale habitats in China's coastal waters and is expected to help conserve marine biodiversity and protect marine fisheries ecosystems, the ministry said. The ban runs from December to April each year, plus the South China Sea summer fishing moratorium from May 1 to Aug. 16.
Bryde's whales are migratory marine mammals and are listed as a first-class nationally protected wild animal in China. They generally pass through four life stages: calf, subadult, adult and old age.
From December to April each year, the waters around the island offer plentiful prey and favorable habitat conditions, attracting large numbers of Bryde's whales to forage, grow and stop over during migration.
Since monitoring began in 2018, researchers have identified more than 70 individual Bryde's whales in the waters around the island, which form a stable wild population with well-established patterns of activity and have become a prominent symbol of China's marine conservation, the ministry added.
(By Zhang Dongfang)
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