In 2016 revenue to Russia from exports of marine mammals including whales, dolphins, sea lions and walruses to China amounted to $US6.8m – a 32% increase on the previous year. China continues to be one of the main markets for marine mammals from Russia – in the first three months of 2017 alone, the value of imports was US$708,000.
Russia’s share in the world’s export of live marine life is 53%, compared to Japan whose share is 24% and whose 2016 exports amounted to US$3.2. China is currently experiencing a boom in marine parks and with the growth of public interest for ocean theme parks on the mainland, increasingly more wild dolphins and whales may be captured and trained simply for profit.
