By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
South and North Korea, Russia and China will collaborate on bringing back the Californian sea lions that once lived near Dokdo islets in the East Sea, the Environment Ministry announced Thursday.
There are three kinds of Californian sea lions in the world _ one lives in northern California, another around the Galapagos Islands and the other in Dokdo. The ministry said while the animals are close to extinction in South Korea and Japan, it is possible that there are some in Chinese and Russian waters.
The four countries will conduct joint research by 2010.
If they manage to find one in these countries, then the government will bring some to the East Sea, but if not, it plans to bring some from the United States.
Experts believe the animal came to the Korean sea in prehistoric times. But during Japanese colonial rule, Japanese trawlers reportedly fished out some 16,500 sea lions, enough to cause their extinction. Since then, only one reported observation was made in 1970.
The Japanese government announced the sea-lions extinction in 1991 and the Korean government also put the animal on the list of highly endangered species in 1998. The ministry released leaflets to fishermen with pictures of the Californian sea lion so they could free the animal in the event it was accidentally netted.