More than 5,000 birds - including some protected and endangered wildlife - have been killed by two massive clap-nets in North China's Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province.
A Beijing-based non-profit foundation named "Let Bird Fly" and Hangu forestry station of Binhai district in Tianjin dismantled two lap-nets with a total length of nearly 20,000 meters that struck thousands of birds including otus sunia, the national second-class protected bird, in Tianjin and Hebei, news site thepaper.cn reported Saturday.
The organization said on its Sina Weibo account Wednesday that volunteers, working with the local forestry station, removed a 10,000-meter-long clap-net that killed over 2,000 birds in the townships of Tianjin near Hebei's Tangshan city on September 29-30, rescuing 400 migrant birds including three otus sunia and some endangered yellow-breasted buntings.
The volunteers found another lap-net and rescued seven otus sunia in Tianjin's Sino-Singapore Eco-City area on Wednesday, said the post.
The Ministry of Forestry on Saturday also sent a team to supervise the work of the local forestry bureaus.
There are three major routes for bird migration around the world and two of them pass Tianjin, where the wetland provides good habitant for various birds.
"The number of birds caught in the lap-nets was very high and hard to count," Qi Yuting, a volunteer from the organization, told the Global Times.
Tian Yangyang, another volunteer who participated in the operation, told thepaper.cn that the two lap-nets are the biggest in size he has ever seen and appeared to be professionally installed.
The nets, made of nylon filament, were hung between upright bamboos or tree branches to capture birds for sale to restaurants, said thepaper.cn.
Wang Zhishuang, an official with the Public Security Bureau of Binhai, confirmed with the Global Times on Saturday that a suspect surnamed Zhang was detained on Tuesday and will receive administrative punishment.
"It's very easy for birdmen to buy a lap-net," said Qi.
According to Qi, Northeast China's Jilin Province is currently the only province which has made the manufacturing of such nets illegal, while Wudi county in East China's Shandong Provi
