Russia has completely dismantled the enclosures in Primorye’s Srednaya Bay, where Lakkolit LLC kept illegally caught marine mammals – killer whales and beluga whales – in 2018. This information comes from the website of the Amur Basin Environmental Prosecutor's Office.

“It was found out that Lakkolit uses Srednyaya Bay for parking and servicing ships.

In 2018, part of the bay’s water area was leased (under leasing agreements) to a number of other limited liability companies, which kept illegally caught killer whales and beluga whales in seven non-mobile enclosures. Despite the cancellation of these agreements in October – November 2020, the former tenants did not take measures to remove the enclosures from the bay,” the statement says.

As requested by the Vladivostok interdistrict environmental prosecutor, the floating structures were dismantled and moved to the Livadia shipyard in a condition that excludes the possibility of their further use for their intended purpose. The new owner plans to recycle the structures and use them for ship repairs.

In 2018, 11 killer whales and 90 beluga whales were caught in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The marine mammals were placed in open-air enclosures in Srednyaya Bay near the city of Nakhodka in the Primorye Territory. The efforts of the public, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation revealed that the animals were caught with numerous violations of the law for sale to Chinese aquariums. Criminal and administrative cases were initiated. The operation to release beluga whales and killer whales into their natural habitat began in June 2019. The first batch of marine mammals was released into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in June 2019, and the last one – in November 2019 in Uspeniya Bay near the Lazovsky Nature Reserve.