Residents of the Primorsky Territory in Russia’s Far East are being urged not to interact with several wild beluga whales in the area, thought to be some of the captive whales released from the ‘whale jail’ in Srednyaya Bay last year.
Social network videos clearly show the public touching and interacting with the whales in the waters around Vladivostok and other areas along the coast. These whales appear to be remaining in the area into which they were released. Marine Connection raised concerns about this at the time, as some of the whales were released into the Sea of Japan and not back into their native habitat from which they were captured, the Sea of Okhotsk.
It would appear that initial concerns about the release site are well-founded as sadly the whales have remained and wintered in the area, the danger is now that they may never leave. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.
