Ecologist Warns Of Risk Of Russian Trapped Orcas Dying On Motor Transport On Way To Sea

The first batch of orcas and belugas from the so-called whale jail in eastern Russia may suffer greatly and even die as they are being transported to the Cape Perovskogo on the automobile transport, head of Sakhalin Environment Watch Dmitry Lisitsyn told Sputnik Monday

VLADIVOSTOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2019) The first batch of orcas and belugas from the so-called whale jail in eastern Russia may suffer greatly and even die as they are being transported to the Cape Perovskogo on the automobile transport, head of Sakhalin Environment Watch Dmitry Lisitsyn told Sputnik Monday.

On Thursday, the first batch of the trapped mammals was transported by motor transport to Khabarovsk from where they were loaded on a river boat that took the animals along the Amur River to the the village of Innokent'yevka. The mammals will then be transported by road again to the shore base next to the Cape Perovskogo.

"The road from Innokent'yevka to Cape Perovskogo is very bad. In addition, it was raining during the entire month there, so the road is washed-out. There is a threat that some animals may not pull through this toughest part of a journey," Lisitsyn said.

The so-called whale jail in Srednyaya Bay made headlines in fall 2018 after Greenpeace reported that the company that captured the rare whales was preparing to sell 13 orcas which are on the Red List of Threatened Species to China, while 15 orcas had already been sold to China. A probe was then launched into the illegal fishing of aquatic animals and animal abuse.