Baseline:
The project is located in Sandaogou Natural Village, Dongguo Town, Panshan County, Panjin City, Liaoning Province, within the National Nature Reserve at the mouth of the Liaohe River. It is also the location of the national first-class fishing port in Panshan County. The permanent population of Sandaogou Village is 100-150 people, with a total of 54 registered fishing vessels, all of which are small offshore fishing vessels. There are 150 fishermen, with an annual income of 60-100000 yuan per vessel. Apart from fishery production, there are no alternative industries in the project area that generate income. There are three other marine aquaculture enterprises in the village, mainly engaged in shellfish farming and harvesting.
The migratory population of the Western Pacific spotted seal, a national level protected animal in China, is distributed in the Liaohekou National Nature Reserve. Our institution conducts long-term monitoring of the number and landing time of the spotted seal in the reserve. 181 seals were found in the protected area in 2021; 253 were discovered in 2022; Found 302 in 2023. The annual landing time of the Western Pacific spotted seal is concentrated in March May, for the past 2-3 years. Monitoring has found that migratory spotted seals have landed since September November. It was also found that 20-29 spotted seals reside at the mouth of the Liaohe River and do not participate in migration.
At present, the National Forestry and Grass Administration (National Park Management Bureau) is planning to establish the Liaohekou National Park, and the World Natural Heritage Site Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea Migratory Bird Migration Area (Phase II) is evaluating the area.
The United Nations Development Programme Global Environment Facility East Asia Australia Migration Route China Migratory Bird Protection Network Construction Project is currently under implementation

Problems:
The species survival of spotted seals in the Western Pacific is facing many challenges. In the frozen area of Liaodong Bay where spotted seals breed, it does not fall within the management scope of the Liaohe River National Nature Reserve, nor does it fall within the management scope of the local fishery department. It is also outside the protection scope of the Dalian National Spotted Seal Reserve. The lack of management during the breeding season has created opportunities for poachers. During the 2019 Spring Festival, 100 spotted seals were poached, A massive spotted seal poaching incident that resulted in 39 deaths. One of the main reasons for the decrease in the population of spotted seals due to human poaching.
The destruction of original habitats has squeezed the living space of spotted seals; Overfishing of fishery resources leads to a shortage of food for spotted seals; Environmental pollution and climate change in the sea area also pose a serious threat to the survival of spotted seals.
The spotted seals that inhabit the Liao River mouth also face similar threats. Among them, the overfishing behavior of community fishermen at the landing points and foraging areas of spotted seals directly threatens their food sources; The fixed nets, trawls, gill nets and other nets used by fishermen are prone to being entangled and drowned by protected animals such as spotted seals and East Asian finless porpoises chasing fish schools.

Activities:
Activity 1.1
Project activity: Set up warning signs to protect spotted seals, stay away from their landing points, and foraging areas in fishing communities and fishing boat docks. Carry out promotional activities in the community, promote the concept of protecting spotted seals, and community fishermen actively report information on spotted seal activities, actively avoiding spotted seal landing points and foraging areas.

Activity 1.2
Project activity: Recruit a volunteer team of community fishermen (with formal procedures for fishing boats and captain certificates), and provide training on the rule of law, basic knowledge of spotted seals, rescue procedures, and fishing operations far from the shore of spotted seals
Sign a commitment letter with fishermen to keep production operations away from the landing point of spotted seals.


Activity 1.3
Project Activity: The project execution team uses drones to take daily aerial photos of the coastline of the spotted seal at a distance of 10 kilometers (with a drone flying radius of up to 5000 meters). The images are fixed, and the project team checks and accumulates in the background. Basic information such as weather, tide, and wind force is recorded on that day, and a monitoring report is generated for that day.
In addition to daily monitoring by the project team, information on spotted seals and finless porpoises obtained by fishermen volunteers during their offshore operations is collected through the community fishermen volunteer team (Liaohekou Marine Animal Information Rescue Group). Monitor the background data such as the landing point, number of landings, and migration time of spotted seals at the Liaohe Estuary throughout the entire process, and record the marine animal information provided by community fishermen volunteers.

Activity1.4
Project activity: Organize fishermen volunteers to participate in anti poaching patrols during the breeding and landing seasons of spotted seals, discover and deter poaching signs through patrols, and expand the influence of NGO anti poaching patrols through media reports.
Activity 1.5
Project activity: Collaborate with the community, led by our organization, to organize the cleaning operation of abandoned fishing nets at the landing site of spotted seals (the cleaning range is from Mentougang at the mouth of the Liaohe River to the Sandaogou sea area, about 10 kilometers, and the landing site of spotted seals in the past 3 years)
Activity 1.6
Project activity: Collaborate with community and institutional volunteers to carry out a large-scale spotted seal landing site garbage removal operation. (Spotted seals that humans can approach are about 5 kilometers from the shore, while others are in the intertidal zone and have no coastal debris)
Activity 2.1
Project activity: Convene a forum for fishermen's communities to explore alternative livelihoods. For non fishing projects such as ecological photography, leisure fishing, and deep processing of seafood, identify the difficulties and pain points in implementing alternative livelihoods, form a survey report, invite local representatives of the National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to participate, and form proposals from representatives of the National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Outcomes:
1. Community fishermen have been fully mobilized to build a folk network for rare and endangered species rescue, mainly consisting of fishermen from the Liaohekou community, and gradually develop into the entire coastal area of the Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Sea, initially forming the status of a center for rare and endangered species rescue in the Liaodong Bay; (Build a network during the project period, continuously improve its functions and operating mechanisms during operation, and continue to play a role after the project is completed)
2. Comprehensively grasp the background data of the Western Pacific spotted seal at the mouth of the Liao River, providing reference for relevant government departments to make protection decisions; (Completed during this project period)
3. Continue to maintain a trend of zero incidents of spotted seal poaching in this area; (This project period will be implemented, and after the project period, anti poaching actions will continue through other funding)
4. Alternative livelihood paths for community fishermen, such as ecological photography, leisure fishing, and deep processing of seafood, have been preliminarily explored to increase the income of community fishermen through non fishing commercial activities, and have received policy support from relevant government departments; (Preliminary exploration completed during the project period)
5. On the basis of summarizing and drawing on the experience and lessons learned from the previous "three-level rescue system" for the rescue and release of spotted seals and finless porpoises, our organization will work together with the second level (government functional departments) and the first level (Ministry of Agriculture rescue network) to rescue or release the spotted seals and East Asian finless porpoises that were accidentally caught in the fishing net, ensuring that 100% of them are rescued and released, To ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations, as well as scientific guidance, and to record, rescue, and release relevant false arrest information through full media dissemination. (Completed within the project period)
6. The abandoned fishing net at the landing site of the spotted seal has been recycled (completed within the project period)