The governor of Primorye and the Cousteau team signed an agreement on the release of orcas and beluga whales from the “whale jail” to the wild

Jean-Michel Cousteau appraised the chances of animals from the “whale jail” to return to the wild
09.04.2019
The goal is to free all whales
13.05.2019

The governor of Primorye and the Cousteau team signed an agreement on the release of orcas and beluga whales from the “whale jail” to the wild

On April 8th in Livadia, Primorye, Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, founder of the Ocean Future Society Jean-Michel Cousteau and Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project Charles Vinick signed a joint statement on the release of orcas and beluga whales to their natural environment.

The statement says:
“Our goal is to release all animals. Scientists, both Russian and international from the Cousteau team, will continue to evaluate animals in order to determine when and how to release them. ”

Also today, a memorandum of mutual understanding was signed between VNIRO (as a representative of the council of scientists and working groups) and the Cousteau team, which declares the unification of efforts, cooperation and coordination of actions for the release of cetaceans into the habitat.

COMMENT FROM OUR COALITION:
This is great news and a big step forward in making the decision to release orcas and beluga whales back to the wild!


We are very grateful to the Cousteau team, who came to Russia from afar and have been working intensively all these days in the “whale jail” to assess the condition of animals and justify their release into the environment.

We hope that the experience of international experts will be taken into account and the whales will soon be free.

We also expect from the state authorities a documented decision on the removal of animals from the illegal possession of capture companies and their release into their natural habitat!