Sanya imports 2 California sea lions

After an 11-hour flight, two California sea lions arrived at Sanya Phoenix International Airport on Aug 16, expecting to meet local citizens in about a month once they complete their quarantine period. 

It is the first time that sea lions have been imported to the tourism city from overseas. 

Since the most suitable temperature for sea lion to live in is 15 to 20 Celsius degrees, it may have a greater impact on the physical condition of the sea lions if they got stuck at the airport for a long time. Sanya Customs set up a special working team for quarantine supervision of the sea lions entering the country, as well as communicated with importing enterprises, quarantine treatment companies, customs declaration units, and airport freight departments in advance to reduce customs clearance time.

"After the sea lions' arrival, we boarded the plane for clinical health examination, checked the official certificates, as well as supervised the staff in terms of the quarantine and disinfection work of contact personnel, aircraft, shipping tools, and transportation vehicles. The whole process took only 50 minutes,” according to an official from Sanya Customs.

After the on-the-spot supervision, the creatures will be shipped to a designated area for quarantine, added the official. 

The two sea lions were introduced to Hainan Ocean Paradise, a popular tourism resort in Lingshui built by R&F Properties. The two male adult sea lions weigh about over 100 kilograms and were artificially bred.

A sea lion swims in a pool in Sanya during its quarantine period. [Photo/sanyarb.com.cn]