VLADIVOSTOK, October 25. /TASS/. An activist coalition dubbed ‘Free Russian Whales’ is concerned about plans to release the remaining group of beluga whales into Srednyaya Bay, in the Primorsky Region. North Korean poachers active in this part of the Sea of Japan could pose a serious threat to the mammals, the coalition wrote on its VKontakte social media page.
Troubles with North Korean poachers, who fish along the waters of the Primorsky Region, escalated this fall. According to the Seafarers’ Union of Russia, more than 500 poachers were taken into custody near the Far East’s shore in less than a month.
"The coalition <...> demands that attention be focused on the fact that an enormous environmental problem has mushroomed in this part of the Sea of Japan. Hundreds of North Korean vessels illegally catch fish and seafood in the economic zone and territorial waters of Russia. Will the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) be ready to protect beluga whales from being captured by poachers?" the report noted.
On Thursday, an expert meeting of the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) decided to release all of the 50 beluga whales in one group next week in a bay in the Lazovsky Nature Reserve area due to approaching storms. The previous releases were carried out in the Sakhalin Gulf area.
In October, the Seafarers’ Union of Russia called for a crackdown on North Korean poachers near the Far East’s shore. According to the organization’s head, Nikolai Sukhanov, poachers have seriously depleted fish resources by using gear and tackle that has been banned in Russia. He noted that the poachers were essentially “cleaning out the entire sea bottom.”
On September 17, while patrolling the Kito-Yamato Bank in the Sea of Japan, Russian border guards uncovered two North Korean schooners and 11 motor boats that had been poaching in Russia’s exclusive economic zone. The crew of one of the vessels assaulted the border guards, injuring four of them.
Ninety beluga whales and 11 orcas caught for sale in China had been kept in Srednyaya Bay, in the Primorsky Region, since the summer of 2018, but later three beluga whales and one orca got lost. According to investigators, during the mammals’ capture, violations were detected and a criminal case was initiated.
In June, the gradual transportation of the animals to the north of the Khabarovsk Region started in order to release them into their natural habitat. The first group, consisting of two orcas and six beluga whales, was freed on June 27. Three orcas were released on July 16, and three more mammals on August 6. The last group of orcas and six beluga whales was freed on August 27. Fifty beluga whales are currently being kept in Srednyaya Bay.