The Presidential Control Directorate, which is one of the subdivisions of the Russian president's executive office, will take the situation with orca whales, held in a so-called "whale jail" in the Russian Far Eastern Primorsky Territory, under its special control, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2019) The Presidential Control Directorate, which is one of the subdivisions of the Russian president's executive office, will take the situation with orca whales, held in a so-called "whale jail" in the Russian Far Eastern Primorsky Territory, under its special control, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture, in cooperation with public and research organizations, to decide on the fate of the whales confined in Srednyaya Bay by March 1. Russian Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dmitry Kobylkin said on Monday that a "road map" for releasing the whales would be developed in the near future.
"The issue cannot be considered as settled and we do not consider it as such. This question, and, in particular, this list of presidential orders, will now be handled by the Presidential Control Directorate. The matter will be taken under the special control of this subdivision of the [Russian] presidential administration," Peskov told reporters when asked if the issue could be considered settled after Kobylkin's statement about the "road map."
The Kremlin is aware that there are multiple views, including those of scientists, on whether the whales could survive in the wild after being released from the bay, the spokesman added.
"Some scientists and representatives of relevant departments believe they can [survive] and should be released before it gets warmer. Others categorically disagree with this [opinion], saying that if released, the animals will be doomed to death. This, of course, slightly complicates the process of solving [the issue], however, de facto, the situation has not been resolved. Therefore, we will be following it closely," Peskov stressed.
Greenpeace Russia told Sputnik in October 2018 that 13 killer whales were about to be sold illegally to China. At least 11 of them have been held in cramped enclosures in Primorsky Territory's Srednyaya Bay, which environmentalists often call a "whale prison." As many as 90 white whales, which were also caught illegally, are reportedly being held there as well.
Russian prosecutors opened an investigation into an illegal fishing and animal abuse, while the court imposed provisional measures to prevent the animals from being taken from the bay, but revoked the ban later. It has been recently reported that three white whales and an orca went missing.
On January 31, a court in the Primorsky Territory's city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk accepted a case, filed by a group of local public organizations, against the Russian Agriculture Ministry, the Russian fishery agency Rosrybolovstvo and the environmental authority Rosprirodnadzor, asking to release the killer whales and white whales from the Srednyaya Bay. On the same day, the court decided that the case should be prepared for judicial proceeding.
