China has opened a website to spread knowledge on harbor seals and call on general public to protect the endangered species migrating each winter to water off Miaodao islets, the gate to Bohai Bay in Changdao county in east China.

The website at www.cdseal.net was launched by the environmental protection bureau of the island county in east China Shandong Province and the local harbor seal protection office to inform netizens of the animal's life cycle, diet, habitat and distribution, as well as China's protection efforts.

Netizens are also encouraged to hold online talks on the species and other related issues pertaining to wildlife and environment protection.

Harbor seals migrate in November from their homes in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan to the Bohai Bay by way of Miaodao islets. The animal was on the verge of distinction in China in themid 1980s due to illegal hunting by profit-driven fishermen.

In 2001, the Shandong provincial government set up a 1,731-sq-km nature reserve off Miaodao Islets to keep the rare species from poachers, protect their habitat and maintain biodiversity.

Meanwhile, the local government has outlawed harbor seal hunting and raised public awareness of wildlife and environment protection.

Migrant harbor seals to Miaodao Islets have risen to 400 this winter, and zoologists are carrying out study on their migration and living habits.

(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2004)