September 23, 2019

Tomorrow is the Rosprirodnadzor’s decision deadline.
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The world’s leading cetacean experts from Canada, New Zealand, Germany, the US, Italy, Greece, Great Britain and Hong Kong express their support for the earlier decision of the Russian authorities to exclude killer whales from the TAC for 2020 and draw the attention of the Russian decision makers to the problems that caused the exclusion of killer whales from TAC are characteristic both for belugas and dolphins, which still remain on the proposed capture list.
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They note that wild captures cause tremendous stress for animals and can lead to numerous injuries and deaths. TAC does not take into account animals that have been injured but managed to get away from trappers; animals that have been injured and in this form have been released back into the wild; as well as dead animals. This means that the pressure on wild population of belugas and dolphins will have impact of higher magnitude than the TAC calculations, and the removal of only a few cetaceans from the wild can have long-term consequences for the entire population.
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This is confirmed by the problems of killer whales living on the southeastern coast of Canada and the northeastern coast of the United States – after systematic capture in the 1960s, their population decreased by half, to only 70 individuals and still remains at this low level.
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Scientists urge Rosprirodnadzor to exclude cetacean from TAC for cultural and educational purposes.
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The state environmental review based on the materials of the total allowable catch of marine mammals for 2020 was started by Rosprirodnadzor on July 24, 2019, the deadline was set to 2 months. Accordingly, it expires tomorrow, September 24, 2019. So far, there is no information on the completion and results of this examination on the official resources of Rosprirodnadzor, nor on its extension. This means that Rosprirodnadzor still has a chance to hear the voice of not only the Russian scientific community, but also the international one.