Hundreds of seals arrive on the coast of Vladivostok

One year, hundreds of seals invaded the icy shores of Vladivostok in search of food and a place to breed, which proves the good environmental conditions of the Russian Pacific area, according to local experts. 

"Since early January, the seals were installed near Cape Eguersheld and also Zolotoi Rog Bay, in the city center," he told RIA Novosti biologist Igor Katin, Dalnevostochni Marine Reserve.

As in previous years to breed the animals came from the Rimsky-Korsakov Archipelago, located in the Gulf of Peter the Great about 70 miles southwest of Vladivostok, said.

It is a species of pinnipeds known as spotted seals. This close relative of the common seal of clear coat and measuring up to 1.7 meters, inhabits the North Pacific from Alaska to Japan and the Russian Far East. 

According Katin, 250 newborns of this species are born each winter on the coast of Vladivostok, which seals also chosen as a good place to eat. Besides fish, their diet includes crustaceans and octopuses. 

In recent years, these mammals almost always arrive on the coast of the city in mid-winter. Because they are particularly sensitive to marine water quality, your visit is a good sign showing that the Vladivostok coastal waters are quite clean. 

"The seals come here attracted by the abundance of marine species. In Soviet times the city's coastal waters were contaminated, but everything changed after that in the 90 closed many factories, "said the expert.