Authorities release 100 caged whales in Russia

Russian authorities have ordered the release of 100 captive orca and beluga whales held captive in cages in Russia’s Far East in a case that has drawn the ire of President Vladimir Putin, the public and international film stars and brought charges against the owners of four companies, which have been keeping animals in shoddy and cramped conditions.

The companies have previously been fined for illegal capture and have a history of selling the animals to amusement parks abroad. The Kremlin has said the 11 orcas and 87 beluga whales were held in cruel conditions and were intended for sale to aquariums and Chinese buyers.

Images of the whales, kept in cramped enclosures in a Srednyaya Bay near the Sea of Japan port town of Nakhodka, first appeared last year, causing a wave of criticism and was nicknamed by Russian media a “whale prison”. Animals rights activist Nina Zyryanova tried to take a picture of the whales in order to post it on social media to help to release the animals. She was roughly stopped: “He crawls into my car, grabs a flash drive, throws the camera at my feet and starts to run away,” she said.

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio had previously posted on Twitter to call for his 19 million followers to sign an online petition supporting the animals’ release. “Please sign this petition and join me in speaking out against the inhumane capture of orcas and belugas in Russia,” he wrote on February 26. The post has since received over 900,000 signatures.

Last week, Russian President Putin ordered his environmental and agricultural ministers to “determine the fate” of the marine mammals by Friday, March 1.