DgcityFor a few late-summer weeks, a stretch of coast near Dalian had an unlikely regular. A young spotted seal, later named Nana, would swim up to waders, rub his head against their legs and take small fish from their hands, usually after a pause that looked, on video, very much like waiting for his name to be called.
Nana’s favourite prop was a giant yellow inflatable duck moored near the shore, where he hauled out to doze in the sun. Filmed from the beach, the clips show a round-headed animal about two years old moving between swimmers with the easy confidence of a local who knows he is welcome. Livestreamers set up tripods along the water, and the seal became a small national celebrity.
The back story made the fame more complicated. Nana was believed to have been separated from his group by a typhoon in 2024, when he was found injured and resting on a piece of floating foam off Beihai, in Guangxi, thousands of kilometres from his species’ usual range. After more than a year of rehabilitation at a Liaoning marine research institute, he completed rewilding training and was released in April with several other rescued seals.
He did not leave. Instead of heading out to open water, Nana settled at Golden Coast and stayed through the warm season. Researchers explained that spotted seals, China’s only pinniped that breeds in national waters and a top-level protected species, migrate into Bohai Bay near Dalian to rest and breed as winter approaches.
His last confirmed sighting came on October 18, when he played near the shore, then slipped out to hunt and did not return. Researchers say his disappearance may simply mean the rewilding finally worked; others who fed him worry. The videos remain, a record of one unusually sociable seal and a summer when a beach became famous for a head bobbing just offshore.
Since the sighting stopped, research teams have patrolled nearby coves and asked fishing boats to report any seal with his familiar scars. They caution against disappointment: a rehabilitated seal that stops seeking human company is, in the language of rewilding, a success, and spotted seals are well able to feed themselves once they join the seasonal migration. Still, the beach feels emptier, and visitors keep glancing toward the yellow duck float bobbing offshore.
