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Adventurer Konyukhov asks Putin to ban catching sea mammals for oceanariums

Konyukhov was among those who expressed concern over the fate of beluga whales and orcas caught for sale to China and kept in the Srednyaya Bay in Russia's Far East

© Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. In a message sent to organizers of the Direct Line with Vladimir Putin annual special television program, Veteran Russian adventurer Fyodor Konyukhov asks the Russian president to prohibit catching sea mammals in Russia for oceanariums.

"I request you, in your capacity as the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society, to initiate a bill that outlaws catching marine mammals in Russia for further sales to Russian and foreign oceanariums," reads the letter, a copy of which was sent to TASS by the voyageur’s son, Oskar Konyukhov.

Konyukhov was among those who expressed concern over the fate of 90 beluga whales and 11 orcas caught for sale to China and kept in the Srednyaya Bay in the Primorsky Region.

Earlier, Konyukhov completed a solo rowboat trip from New Zealand to Cape Horn, and, according to him, he saw whales "only a few times" during the 154-day oceanic journey.

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