Russia releases last Orcas from ‘whale jail’ – What about the Belugas?
75 beluga whales are still languishing in the 'whale jail', and the question remains whether Russia's practice of catching wild marine mammals for the aquarium industry will be banned.
AFP: ‘Russian environmentalists celebrated a “huge victory” on Tuesday after the last of a group of killer whales kept in a notorious facility were released into the sea following year-long captivity. But 75 beluga whales still languished in pens in the so-called “whale jail” in the Russian Far East, and the question remains whether Russia’s controversial practise of catching wild marine mammals for the aquarium industry will be banned.
The All-Russian Fisheries and Oceanography Institute, or VNIRO, has released a total of 10 killer whales, or orcas, and 12 of 87 beluga whales since June, sending them on an arduous 1,800-kilometre (1,120 mile) route by truck and boat… VNIRO said in a statement that the last two killer whales and six of the belugas had been released into the wild. “All 10 orcas from the Srednyaya Bay (facility) have been set free,” it said…
The scandal over the secretive facility packed with young orcas and belugas broke early this year after photos appeared in the media of the animals struggling to swim in ice-encrusted waters. Russian President Vladimir Putin eventually ordered officials to resolve the situation and oversaw the first release of whales in June.
The aquarium industry has for years used a loophole in Russian law allowing it to catch wild orcas for “educational” purposes but in fact ship them abroad. The firms that own the whales admitted they had plans to sell them to aquariums, particularly in China, where there is a boom in such sea life centres’. SOURCE…
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