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In some ways, Li Songhai is the direct reverse of Captain Ahab, the vengeful captain in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick.
Not like Ahab, who was obsessive about looking a large white sperm whale, Li is devoted to finding out and defending these creatures within the South China Sea.
Li, a researcher on the Chinese language Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering, leads one of many nation’s deep-sea marine mammal analysis groups. The group includes about 20 individuals who, he says, are “bodily, mentally and spiritually examined” by the tough situations for oceanic expeditions within the South China Sea.
Li’s group has discovered that there’s a good probability that the South China Sea is a nursing floor for the endangered sperm whale, the biggest toothed whale on the earth, which may develop to greater than 49 ft in size.
The group’s findings had been printed within the journal Deep Sea Analysis Half I: Oceanographic Analysis Papers in April, the primary time it had featured a research by Chinese language scientists on marine mammals.
Finding out sperm whales and different mammals within the South China Sea is of nice scientific, ecological and strategic significance for China’s conservation, administration and improvement of deep-sea organic sources within the area, Li mentioned.
In line with the group’s research, 9 teams of sperm whales had been sighted in northern areas of the South China Sea from 2019 to 2021. They had been seen south-east of the island province of Hainan and north of the Xisha Islands. Every group comprised 5 to seven whales, and 7 teams had been discovered to be nursing one or two calves.
All through historical past there have been stories of stranded sperm whales sighted in China’s coastal provinces, Li mentioned, however till now scientists have been unable to instantly affirm that there are sperm whale populations within the nation’s coastal waters.
“Once I first noticed a dwell sperm whale within the South China Sea in 2019 I couldn’t imagine my eyes. The sight of a single whale is breathtaking sufficient, however a number of occasions we noticed a mom whale swimming along with her calf, accompanied by a gaggle of Fraser’s dolphins. This was a sight to behold.”
Whereas grownup male sperm whales journey hundreds of miles on the lookout for meals and mates, females with their calves don’t comply with go well with. Coupled with the truth that the South China Sea has ample meals sources for sperm whales, it’s attainable that it’s also a key looking and breeding floor for the creatures, Li mentioned.
“As these whales are such a vital a part of a wholesome marine ecosystem, China might have to enhance its insurance policies associated to marine ecological safety to defend these helpful creatures and different undersea sources from intrusive human actions.”
Such work consists of enhancing marine biology analysis within the South China Sea and establishing a nationwide marine protected space to safeguard waters round sperm whale nurseries, Li mentioned, just like marine protected areas in nations reminiscent of Australia, Brazil, Greece, the UK and the USA.
“For a lot of nations, the sperm whale has been a flagship creature for marine analysis and a poster youngster for marine conservation,” Li mentioned.
“It’s because sperm whales are peaceable creatures that don’t compete with people for sources on land – but they play a vital position within the sustainability of the oceans that advantages all of us. This makes them really altruistic associates of humankind.”
Beforehand printed on Chinadaily.com.cn
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