Coordinated efforts aim to improve public awareness of 'sea pandas'

A teacher and students unveil a model of a Chinese white dolphin that was donated to Xiamen Binhai Primary School in Xiamen, Fujian province, by the Xiamen Chinese White Dolphin and Amphioxus Nature Reserve. The school is the city's first to introduce marine ecology preservation into its curriculum.  [Photo/China Daily]

Editor's note: As protection of the planet's flora, fauna and resources becomes increasingly important, China Daily is publishing a series of stories to illustrate the country's commitment to safeguarding the natural world.

Three neighboring coastal cities in East China's Fujian province — Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou — have recently launched a landmark cross-regional collaboration to protect the Chinese white dolphins in their shared waters.

Xiamen is China's only major city where these marine mammals, under first-class State protection and affectionately nicknamed the "giant pandas of the sea", live right alongside bustling urban life and can be spotted occasionally by residents. It is estimated that around 80 Chinese white dolphins inhabit Xiamen's waters.

"Protecting white dolphins requires pulling the entire society together," said Xu Jing, an official at the Xiamen Chinese White Dolphin and Amphioxus Nature Reserve Affairs Center. "We focus on mobilizing volunteers to join our rescue and monitoring teams."

As the dolphins frequently migrate out of Xiamen's waters into neighboring areas, local enforcement teams officially upgraded this cross-regional mechanism last month to formally institutionalize real-time data sharing, joint maritime patrols and emergency rescues, according to Xu.