Scientists To Release 50 Belugas From Russia's 'Whale Jail' Until November 1 - NGO

Scientists have decided to release the last 50 beluga whales from the so-called whale jail in Russia's Far East to the Sea of Japan until November 1, head of Sakhalin Environment Watch Dmitry Lisitsyn told Sputnik

VLADIVOSTOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th October, 2019) Scientists have decided to release the last 50 beluga whales from the so-called whale jail in Russia's Far East to the Sea of Japan until November 1, head of Sakhalin Environment Watch Dmitry Lisitsyn told Sputnik.

Lisitsyn said that a meeting of a working group on the release of the sea animals took place in Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution earlier on Thursday.

"The deputy director at the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography [VNIRO] and the secretary of the consilium, Vyacheslav Bizikov, said that the Russian government has rigidly set a task to release all 50 beluga whales still remaining in the whale jail before November 1, 2019. To achieve this goal VNIRO can use two research vessels � 'Zodiac' and 'Professor Kaganovsky,' which will take on board 14 and 36 beluga whales respectively," Lisitsyn said.

Lisitsyn noted that the animals will be released into the Sea of Japan in the south of the Primorsky Territory, near the Lazovsky Reserve, and not into the Sea of Okhotsk, due to difficult weather conditions.

Russia has been in the spotlight over its treatment of marine mammals following a 2018 report by the Greenpeace environmental protection group, which claimed that over 100 endangered orca and beluga whales were being kept in deplorable conditions in a so-called whale jail.

After a probe was launched into the claims, a local court eventually ruled that the sea mammals had been caught illegally. As a result, the responsible companies were fined $2.4 million Dollars and the animals were ordered to be immediately released.