The Sea of Life environmental festival, dedicated to marine mammal conservation, is now an official holiday in the Kamchatka Territory. It will be celebrated on the fourth Saturday in September.

This idea was proposed by Kronotsky Nature Reserve management, and the amendment to the law was approved at a regular session of the local parliament.

According to Alexei Kumarkov, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Kamchatka Territory, the Sea of Life festival programme will include a thematic photo exhibition, open air lectures and entertainment events.

“The festival is being held to raise environmental awareness in the territory, to attract the public and the authorities as well as nature conservation organisations to the marine mammal conservation issue. The festival’s symbol is the Steller sea lion, a mammal living near the coast of the peninsula and listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation and the Red Data Book of the Kamchatka Territory,” said the Deputy Minister.

The Sea of Life festival was held in Kamchatka last autumn for the first time. The organisers showed a variety of aquatic wildlife and drew attention to the conservation of sea otters, seals, whales, dolphins, beluga whales and other mammals native to the Kamchatka peninsula coasts.