The prison for whales, it's finished!

Crédits photo © Yuri Smityuk/TASS

Two orcas and six belugas have already set off for the Okhotsk Sea in clunky old trucks, from which you can hear their anguished calls under the tarpaulin that hides them. The trip is at high risk, for them as for those who will follow them in small groups until all the pens are empty. In addition, their rehabilitation will be reduced to ten days before they are released off the coast of Shantar Island in the Okhotsk Sea, some 1,770 kilometres from the place of their abduction. Some are very affected by their stay with humans. Last April, we participated in sending a group of experts composed of Jean-Michel Cousteau and members of the Whale Sanctuary Project, including a distinguished collaborator of One Voice, the biologist Ingrid Visser. They had been invited to assess the state of health of these captives on the spot and to propose a rehabilitation plan. According to their report, most of the animals presented severe skin lesions (the skin of the orcas was burned by ice, they have been partially skinned alive), but all seemed well fed and able to be released.

In a televised debate, Vladimir Putin commented on this transfer.

"You should know that a single orca is already worth almost $ 10 million," he said, "And when there is so much money at stake, problems are always difficult to solve. Thank goodness things have started to move". Let us salute here the obstinacy of the President of the Russian Federation to impose his will on the governors of these distant provinces, who are reluctant to let go of the goose that lays the golden eggs so easily. It was also for him to restore the image of Russia. It is indeed the only country to still carry out this kind of capture, at a time when marine sanctuaries are opening in Iceland and Greece and when Canada now prohibits any detention of cetaceans on its territory.

Heavy fines

Better yet, on May 31^st, the Sakhalin court declared illegal all orca and beluga catch quotas issued in 2018 by the Federal Fisheries Agency. As a result, two of the four companies involved in these catches were subsequently given very heavy fines. Trials against the other companies are still ongoing, but there will already be no catches of large cetaceans in Russia until further notice. Deputy Prime Minister Gordeyev also confirmed that the government would soon amend the law which still authorizes the abduction of these marine mammals for "educational and cultural purposes" today.

Hope

All is certainly not resolved for the prisoners of the Srednyaya bay because their release will take at least four months and all will probably not survive. But we can only applaud this unexpected liberation, which marks a turning point in the history of Russia and does it proud.
One Voice also hopes that it will give food for thought to countries like China and France, which still exploit dolphins and orcas in their aquatic circuses.
The road will be long, but we want to believe it: Cetaceans in slavery, it's almost over!