A group of people hurried forward under the leadership of Xiang Yang.
"Stop." Gao Chuang suddenly waved his hand and shouted loudly when he was halfway there.
"Um?"
Everyone looked at Gao Chuang.
"What's wrong, Mr. Gao?" Xiang Yang asked puzzledly.
"Look at the ice." Gao Chuang pointed in a direction and said.
Xiang Yang quickly looked in that direction.
I saw a very hidden depression in the white snow.
"Let's go and take a look." Gao Chuang ran towards the depression in the snow.
When they got closer, Xiang Yang and others discovered that under the depression in the snow, there was actually an oval ice cave. Under the ice cave, there was a seal squinting its eyes, breathing the air greedily.
"There really is a freshwater lake." Gao Chuang said in surprise after seeing the seal.
Xiang Yang was somewhat stunned, "This seal's eyes seem to be damaged."
"Oh? Really?" Gao Chuang hurriedly looked down at the ice cave.
Sure enough, the seal's left eye was very bright, but its right eye was half-closed, and the eye was full of a yellowish semi-liquid substance, which covered its entire right eye, making it look as if it was blind.
When the seal saw so many people appear at the cave entrance, it panicked and dived into the water, and did not show up for a long time.
"That seal must have stayed under this ice cave for a long time." Xiang Yang analyzed.
Seals are amazing creatures. They can survive on land, under the sea, and even in fresh water.
However, if seals stay in fresh water for a long time, they will easily suffer from eye diseases. Although they will not go blind, they are still very serious.
Seals are the most widely distributed type of pinnipeds, and can be found from the Antarctic to the Arctic, from seawater to freshwater lakes.
As early as a few years ago, some netizens reported that they saw two seals while visiting Baotu Spring in Jinan, and one of the seals may have eye disease.
This news attracted many netizens to join the discussion at the time.
Some netizens said that this is nothing new, as seals have been raised in Baotu Spring many years ago.
It is said that seals are raised in Baotu Spring because the spring is dry. If the spring is dry, tourists will not come here to visit.
Therefore, the park found a master for advice. The master said that if they wanted Baotu Spring to continue to spray, they needed to raise a few seals.
Seal, seal. Since there is seal, the homonymous Baotu Spring has the "Bao" in its name.
However, the staff of Baotu Spring later refuted the rumor, saying that Baotu Spring has been raising seals for many years and the rumor online that seals were introduced to Baotu Spring due to feng shui is false.
And local people have testified that the two seals had existed when they were young.
However, netizens do not agree with this reply. Many people think that in order to retain tourists, Baotu Spring does not necessarily have to raise seals. It can raise other fish or animals because seals are adapted to seawater and Baotu Spring is fresh water.
The eye disease of the seals at Baotu Spring is caused by fresh water.
As a marine animal, seals are easily prone to eye inflammation when raised in fresh water.
The rumors are not credible, but there are two things that are certain, that is, Baotu Spring is indeed a seal, and Baotu Spring is indeed fresh water.
Therefore, saltwater seals are definitely capable of living in fresh water.
And, as far as Xiang Yang knows, there is also a kind of freshwater seal in the world.
There are many species of seals, most of which live in sea water. The only freshwater seal is called the Baikal seal.
The scientific community generally believes that the Baikal seals should come from the Arctic Ocean because they are most closely related to the seals there.
The fat and round Baikal seals are very agile in the water and can swim at speeds of up to 20 kilometers per hour.
After investigation, biologists found that the limbs of the Baikal seal are flipper-shaped, and the hind limbs are connected to the tail. They are always facing backwards and cannot walk, so they are very clumsy on land.
Therefore, some scientists believe that the ancestors of the Baikal seal came to Lake Baikal from the Angara River.
But this statement has not been universally accepted.
The exact time when the seals arrived at Lake Baikal remains a mystery.
Scientists can only speculate that the seals most likely came to Lake Baikal during the ice age.
At that time, the Yenisei River and Angara River basins were covered with ice and snow for a long time, the riverbed became deeper, and the seals living in the Arctic Ocean region expanded their range to the south. They came to Lake Baikal after a long journey of thousands of kilometers.
When the ice age ended, the river flow decreased significantly and the riverbed became shallower. These "guests from afar" had to stay here and gradually evolved into the world's unique freshwater seals.
The Baikal seal is the only seal in the world that can live freely in fresh water.
However, how they came to settle in this lake is difficult to explain.
The Baikal seal is closely related to the Arctic seal.
But according to data, the southern part of the Siberian Plateau where Lake Baikal is located has never been submerged by sea water in more than 500 million years.
It is impossible for the ancestors of the Baikal seal to travel from the distant Arctic Ocean to a completely different environment and survive to this day.
Gao Chuang lit a cigarette for himself, took a deep puff, and then exhaled a puff of smoke mixed with hot air with great enjoyment.
"We'll wait here. After the seal comes up, we'll lower the sonar detector into the ice cave to see if there are any fish in the ice lake."
Xiang Yang nodded in agreement.
The speed at which seals swim underwater can be said to be as fast as flash. As long as a seal is in the water, there is basically no need to think about catching it. You can only wait for it to need to breathe and then climb out of the ice cave by itself.
Of course, Gao Chuang and his team could also just ignore the seal and directly lower the sonar detector through the ice cave.
But that would undoubtedly cause the seal under the ice cave to die from lack of oxygen.
Seals on the floating ice can slowly bite through the ice caves with their sharp teeth, but it is extremely difficult for seals under the ice caves to bite through the ice caves.
After all, Gao Chuang is old and his physical fitness cannot be compared with that of young people. It is easy for him to get frozen in this snowy and icy environment.
Xiang Yang couldn't help but said, "Boss Gao, how about we stay here, and you take the two brothers back to call for help, and we can try to collect some goods under this ice cave."
A group of people subconsciously looked at Gao Chuang. In fact, what Xiang Yanggang said was exactly what they wanted to say.
From the slightly trembling hand holding the cigarette, it can be seen that Gao Chuang has actually reached the limit of what he can endure.
"I'm not going back." Gao Chuang waved his hand. "Let's first explore whether there are any fishery resources worth fishing under this icy lake, and then we can make plans for the next step."