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Dolphin rescue effort underway in Crimea

The director of the Sevastopol dolphinarium reportedly released the aquatic mammals into the sea from a local beach on Wednesday evening

SEVASTOPOL, November 3. /TASS/. A rescue operation has been launched in the Crimean port of Sevastopol to save dolphins allegedly abandoned by a local dolphinarium, the city’s governor said on Thursday.

"Four dolphins who had lived in captivity for ten years were released into the open sea," Mikhail Razvozhayev said in a Telegram post. "They are accustomed to absolutely different conditions, so they are unlikely to swim too far away from the coast where the water is warmer."

The director of the Sevastopol dolphinarium reportedly released the aquatic mammals into the sea from a local beach on Wednesday evening.

According to Svetlana Radionova, the head of Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor), two of the dolphins were spotted off the shore and would be transported to a dolphinarium in Koktebel, a resort town in southeast Crimea.

"The search for the two others is underway. Fortunately, both are chipped," Radionova wrote on her Telegram channel, adding that a trainer from Koktebel who had earlier worked with these dolphins is taking part in the rescue operation.

The local interior affairs department has launched an animal cruelty investigation case after the dolphins’ release without proper adaptation to wildlife conditions.