The Marine Mammals of Holarctic International Conference has concluded in St Petersburg. The conference has been held twice a year for the last 15 years by the Marine Mammal Council. The influence of offshore development on animal populations was a key agenda item.

In particular, experts discussed programmes aimed at preserving biodiversity in the development areas. In June 2014, Vladimir Putin instructed the extracting companies to develop and adopt such programmes.

Per these instructions, Gazprom proposed to put up a fence around the Kharasaveiskoye gas field facilities and scare Polar bears off using light and sound effects. Yamal LNG will take part in the efforts to eliminate the environmental damage to Bely Island, record and systematise all encounters of ships with marine animals, and finance research on the Atlantic walrus.