The following letter, signed by 27 prominent international marine mammal scientists, has been sent to the Russian government and media urging that no new quotas for live captures of beluga whales and dolphins occur in 2020.
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Last week, researchers photographed a released Whale Jail orca swimming with a pod of 13 other wild orcas in Russia’s Sea of Okhotsk. The orca, named “Zina,” is the second of the released orcas to have reintegrated with a wild pod. The pod was photographed swimming around the Shantar Islands on Sept. 9th, 2019. According to the researchers, Zina lost the satellite tag that the Russian Fisheries Agency placed on her during her release on August 6th.
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One of the major questions that confronts the release of cetaceans: Will they be able to find and rejoin their original family pods, despite being in captivity for a prolonged period of time?
A positive answer has now emerged for one of the Whale Jail orcas who has been released. On August 20th, Grigory Tsidulko and other Russian researchers studying bowhead whales around the Shantar Sea were able to photograph a pod of killer whales that included an orca with a satellite tag.
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The last orcas, which had been captured and placed in the Russian Whale Jail, wlll soon be free, along with six beluga whales. Read More
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The next release is scheduled to begin on August 22nd, according to the Russian environmental agency. It will include the two remaining orcas, and possibly some of the beluga whales. It takes five days to truck and barge the whales from the Russian Whale Jail, south of Vladivostok, to their home waters. The agency vowed to continue the process for the remaining beluga whales as long as the weather will allow, likely into November.
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A unique aspect of this latest release is that the Russian fisheries agency (VNIRO) has agreed to take along an observer from Greenpeace Moscow. Reportedly, the agency has agreed to be more transparent and open, presumably as a result of public outcry and criticism from scientists. The Greenpeace observer will be present for entire transfer and release process.
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Last week, 3 orcas from the notorious “whale jail” in Russia were transported to the Sea of Okhotsk, where they were released. This release appeared to go better for the orcas than the release last month. Two orcas and six beluga whales were previously released into the Sea of Okhotsk on June 27th, under government contract, by the same Russian companies that captured the whales in the first place.
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This Week, Russia Will Begin the Second Release of Orcas from the Russian Whale Jail. Three Will Be Transported to the Sea of Okhotsk, But Will The Russian Contractors (the Same People Who Originally Caught the Whales for Sale to China) Follow International Scientific Recommendations for the Release?
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Russia Has Released the Eight Whales Into the Sea of Okhotsk, But Our Russian Colleagues Are Concerned With the Releases, Noting the Secrecy and the Lack of Acclimation and Release Near Wild Whales.
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There are still many questions around the Russian release of the Whale Jail whales back to their home waters. Here's the latest!
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