Source: rg.ru

Orcas and beluga whales from the “whale prison” in Primorye have a chance to return to the wild, said Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the famous oceanographer Jacque Cousteau.

– There is always a chance, there is always an opportunity. It depends on the proposals that our team can develop. Recall that they all behave differently, each is different from the others, – said Cousteau after the first inspection of the “whale jail.” He added that the decision on release will be made after all the experts come together, discuss their findings and make a joint decision.
Asked by journalists whether cetaceans would be sent to the aquarium, a member of the team that arrived with Jean-Michel Cousteau, Charles Vinick, said that orcas and belugas should live in nature.
“We all believe that these animals should be in the wild, they belong to the wild” RIA Novosti quotes.

In the fall of 2018, it became known that about hundreds of killer whales and beluga whales, caught to be sold to China, were kept in Srednyaya Bay near Nakhodka. The prosecutor’s office found violations inter capture, zoologists found injuries of belugas, and the administration of the President of the Russian Federation took control of the situation. The Ministry of Environment and the Administration of the Primorsky Territory invited Jean-Michel Cousteau to assist in the rescue of marine mammals.