August 31, 2019

According to INTERFAX – FAR EAST, the French oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau and his adviser Charles Vinick sent a letter to Rosprirodnadzor, the Ministry of Natural Resources and members of the state environmental expert examination with a request to exclude all marine mammals from TAC for 2020.
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“We are pleased to learn that experts have already excluded killer whales from TAC. We also ask you to exclude the capture of other cetaceans – including belugas, pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins, and Pacific white-sided dolphins – for cultural and educational purposes from TAC,” the letter says.
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The authors of the letter – the founder and president of Ocean Futures Society Jean Michel Cousteau and the executive director of the Whale Sanctuary project Charles Vinick – emphasize that science knows little about the populations of these whales and dolphins.
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“Capturing them for cultural-educational purposes, trapping them in aquariums, is the wrong way to learn more about them. Instead, we should study them in their natural habitat” the statement emphasizes.
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“Capture and transport of these animals are very stressful for them and can lead to injuries and even death. Holding these cetaceans in captivity in concrete tanks leads to unnatural behaviors, systemic illnesses and greatly shortened lifespans. We also do not know the impacts that capture of individual animals can have on the cetaceans’ larger populations. “scientists say.
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Cousy and Vinick are asking to take their opinion into account when conducting an examination of TAC.
Full letter

https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/…/JMC_CV-Letter-to-Enviro…
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And we thank international scientists for their attention to the problem of cruel capture of cetaceans and efforts to stop them all over the world!