The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute is one of the lead organizations working globally to help return the Whale Jail whales of Russia to their home in the Sea of Okhotsk and permanently ban such wild captures in Russian waters.
We’ve had two important and positive developments in the past week on the Russian front, with 75 beluga whales still languishing in the Whale Jail and a pending decision on possible capture quotas for beluga whales and dolphins in 2020.
In the summer of 2018, almost 100 wild orcas and beluga whales were captured in the Sea of Okhotsk by Russian hunters for sale to Chinese aquariums. Local Russian conservationists, working with the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute and other international organizations, managed to block the export of the whales to China in Russian courts and further publicized the plight of the whales in very crowded, unhealthy conditions in the Whale Jail, located in Srednyaya Bay, east of Vladivostok.
Due to public pressure generated by grassroots Russian organizations, IMMP, and international scientists and celebrities, the Russian government decided to return the captured whales to their home waters and proceeded to transfer all eleven orcas and a dozen beluga whales home, a process that took several months this summer.
IMMP has raised problems with the release effort. It is not clear that the whales have been rehabilitated and practiced in catching their own fish or marine mammals. The whales are kept in very small boxes for the long drive north to the release point. And the whales are not being released in the presence of their home pods.
Nonetheless, subsequent sightings by Russian scientists confirm that at least two of the eleven orcas have rejoined wild pods of orcas again, likely their original pods from which they were removed in 2018, after more than a year in captivity.
The first positive report we received last week: On Sept. 26th, the Russian Fisheries Agency (VNIRO) announced that the remaining 75 beluga whales would be moved by a special research vessel to the Sea of Okhotsk and released back into the wild. On Saturday, Sept. 28th, we received word that fourteen beluga whales had been loaded on the Vladimir Safonov, owned by VNIRO. It is expected that the trip will last three days. 61 beluga whales remain in the notorious Whale Jail, but are expected to be moved out soon.
This is great news, as rumors had been circulating that the Russian government might decide not to release the 75 beluga whales remaining in captivity, but keep them either in Russian aquariums or let them be sold to Chinese facilities for a life of captivity. VNIRO stated that the original path for release of the whales, involving a six-day truck and barge trip to the sea, was no longer viable due to weather. The Amur River is in flood, and the roads have been washed out by storms. The research vessel can take the whales faster and avoid the delays on land caused by bad weather.
Secondly, the Russian Governmental Ecological Expertise panel released a decision that issuing permits in 2020 for live capture of beluga whales and dolphins was not legally justified and recommended no capture permits. This is a significant win towards getting a permanent ban on captures of dolphins and whales in Russian waters for captivity. The permits only cover captures in the Russian Far East.
Most of the quota under consideration was intended for Native subsistence use, but about 80 beluga whales and 36 dolphins were proposed for capture for the captivity entertainment industry. Russian law allows captures for captivity only for scientific or educational purposes, not entertainment. IMMP is working with Russian colleagues towards gaining a permanent ban on live captures of cetaceans in Russian waters.
It is likely that VNIRO will establish another panel to prepare new quotas for captures in 2020, hopefully limited this time to subsistence needs of Russian Native peoples and allowing no permits for entertainment purposes.
