Marine Connection welcomes the news that Russian transient killer whales are to be included in the Russian Red Book of endangered species, to take effect as soon as this entry is registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
Monitoring is very difficult in Russia due to tight secrecy surrounding killer whale captures from the wild, and this latest move will not only give them state protection but should end all future wild captures of these majestic marine mammals in the Sea of Okhotsk.
For years, Russia has authorised transient killer whales to be taken from its territorial waters for cultural and educational purposes, a loophole which is in fact frequently exploited by those who capture these whales to sell to marine parks and aquariums in countries including China and Russia for commercial purposes.
As a charity that has long campaigned against this practice, we now hope that the Federation enacts this protection agreement as quickly as possible to protect the transient killer whales and stop this cruel trade.
