November 8, 2019

VNIRO reports that in Uspenia bay “Professor Kaganovsky” began release of 19 beluga whales. The vessel with animals arrived there early this morning.
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Our team of independent observers from the Coalition and Greenpeace arrived at the release site at 11:45 a.m. We did not observe the release of all animals from the very beginning. Currently, on Kaganovsky we see 3 belugas, most of them have been released already, we continue to observe.

There is also a vessel of the Primorsky Border Control at the release site. As we were informed by the Border Control their ship escorted the vessel “Professor Kaganovsky” overnight from Srednyaya Bay to Uspenia Bay and now controls the release of beluga whales and counts the released animals.
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The Border Control also reports that there are no poachers’ vessels in the area of release and in the nearest water areas – the border guards checked it in advance.
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Moreover in addition, the border guards informed the Coalition that a few days ago, the staff of Primorsky Border Guard Department intentionally visited the “whale jail” and counted all the beluga whales – all 50 animals were there.
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At the same time, observers from Coalition in Srednyaya bay reported that the next group of belugas are currently being loaded on the VNIRO vessel Zodiak in Srednyaya Bay. The loading process is going fast, 11 beluga whales are already on board.
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Stay tuned.
Photo: Free Russian whales coalition and Greenpeace Russia