December 16, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 10, the last prisoners of the whale jail 50 belugas were released in the Uspenia bay in Primorye. These belugas were caught in the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk in 2018. Due to desperate attempts by capture companies to sell the remaining 50 belugas to China until the last minute – time was wasted; it was impossible to take belugas to the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk in November due to weather conditions. The release took place in the Uspenia bay, where there is a good food source present.
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On December 13-14, our representatives carried out monitoring in the area of release. On the first day they went to sea on a rented vessel and went through all the bays from Preobrazheniya to the Uspenia Bay, on the second day the weather turned bad – the vessel did not go out, but the guys traveled all possible places by car.
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They did not see belugas, but talked to the guards at several coastal bases. The guards reported good news!
Belugas are often seen, always in groups (at least 2 individuals, usually in large groups of 6-12 individuals). Gray (babies) are seen along with white belugas (adults). So far, not a single dead beluga has been found. According to the eyewitnesses, belugas come to different bays, where they spend 2-3 days, then leave.
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One of the guards shared this video with us, which was taken 1-2 weeks ago in Uspenia Bay. According to the experts, the behavior of belugas in the video looks like foraging behavior!
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A month passed after the release: no one had found any dead belugas, the belugas are seen in groups and, apparently, it looks like they are hunting successfully, and no begging behavior has been recorded. This is very good news! We believe that belugas will make it! They are free, they are together, the adults take care of the younger ones and everything will be fine with them!
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Now It\u2019s very important for us to ensure that captures never happen again! We were able to free the whales – we can also ban captures!
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For the last several weeks we have been working very hard to collect 100000 signatures under the petition from governmental website. This petition can only be signed by Russian citizens, that\u2019s why we\u2019ve been posting only in Russian language. We have 10 days left to collect 18 000 remaining signatures and we will do that! If you have russian friends – please ask them to sign ROI 49427\u00a0https:\/\/www.roi.ru\/49427\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n