Local fishermen said they saw two to three gray seals swimming in the sea and then climbing up the rocks.

Both locals and tourists were very excited to see seals, which live in cold water.

The local governments have asked local residents and tourists to protect the seals.

Experts from the Institute of Oceanography in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province said that this is not the first time the seals appeared in Vietnam waters. 

Fishermen in some provinces in the central region such as Da Nang, Ninh Thuan, Thua Thien Hue, and Quang Ngai previously caught seals in their nets.

Experts said most of the seals that came to Vietnam’s waters belong to the spotted seal species (Phoca largha), which are small. They guessed that these seals lost their group and drifted down to the tropical waters in central Vietnam.

The Nha Trang Oceanography Institute is raising two seals caught by fishermen in Thua Thien Hue and Ninh Thuan to serve research and sightseeing.

The spotted seal is a member of the family Phocidae, and is considered a "true seal". It inhabits ice floes and waters of the north Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas. It is primarily found along the continental shelf of the Beaufort, Chukchi, Bering and Okhotsk Seas.

Mai Nguyen