The Russian Government has set the goal of releasing the 50 beluga whales that remain in Srednyaya Bay before 1 November 2019. Vyacheslav Bizikov, secretary of the scientific council and deputy director of the Russian Federal Research Institute for Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), made the announcement at a meeting of the working group on rehabilitation and adaptation plans of the scientific council for protecting marine mammals kept in Srednyaya Bay in the Primorye Territory, held on 24 October at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution.

Vyacheslav Bizikov said that two research vessels, the Zodiac and Professor Kaganovsky, which would be able to carry 14 and 36 beluga whales, respectively, could be used to complete the task.

According to experts, due to the harsh weather conditions on the vessels’ route to the proposed place for catching the beluga whales in the Sea of Okhotsk and the safety concerns for people and animals, the scientists decided to release the remaining beluga whales in Uspeniya Bay in the Sea of Japan.

Uspeniya Bay is located near the Lazovsky Nature Reserve. It is no more than 100 km by sea from Srednyaya Bay.

Specialists from the Pacific Fisheries Research Centre explained during the meeting that, although the Sea of Japan is not the beluga whales’ normal habitat, there is a good food supply in this area and the released animals will have plenty to eat.