With bulging bellies toward the sky, a group of spotted seals is sunbathing on the rocks in Liaodong Bay, northeast China’s Liaoning Province.

Under top-class national protection in China, the spotted seal is the only pinniped marine mammal to breed in Chinese waters.

The seals come to Liaodong Bay from cold waters at high latitudes every December, prey and rest in the area, and return northwards in May.

From every January to March, about 200 cubs are born in the 10,000-square-kilometer ice area in Liaodong Bay.

The seals have to overcome various challenges after birth. People occasionally find stranded ones drifting with the ice sheets on the shore, triggering the monitoring, rescue, and releasing work.