{"id":2462,"date":"2019-01-09T00:51:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T00:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/?p=2462"},"modified":"2019-01-09T01:05:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T01:05:22","slug":"ocean-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/2019\/01\/09\/ocean-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean Jail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
a captive marine mammal in an unknown location<\/em>
Source: Snopes, 2018.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Leila Lemos<\/strong><\/p>\n

PhD candidate, Fisheries and Wildlife Department, OSU<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This past November, headlines were made when a drone captured images of over 100 dolphins confined in Srednyaya Bay, Russia, for commercial reasons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 01: Location of the \u201cwhale jail\u201d in Srednyaya Bay, near Nakhodka, Russia.
Source: Big Think, 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

This\u00a0\u201cwhale jail\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>was installed in Srednyaya Bay to receive \u201cprisoners\u201d last July. The Russian newspaper\u00a0Novaya Gazeta<\/a><\/em>\u00a0originally reported the story on 30 October 2018 and stated that 11 killer whales and 90 beluga whales [both actually dolphin species] were being held in captivity. These prisoners represent a record catch for the four companies believed to be responsiblefor the captures: LLC Oceanarium DV, LLC Afalina, LLC Bely Kit and LLC Sochi Dolphinarium.<\/p>\n

These 101 black-market dolphins are jammed into tiny offshore pensmade ofnetting and are believed to be illegally up for sale to one of China’s 60 marine parks and aquariums, as told by the British journal The Telegraph<\/a><\/em>. With this entertainment business booming in China and a dozen more venues reportedly under construction, there is a demand for these intelligent, social, wild animals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 02: Twitter post by the Russian government-controlled news outlet RT showing the tiny pens where the cetaceans are being held in captivity in Srednyaya Bay, Russia.
Source: Snopes, 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The full drone footage can be seen here:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SlyD6ox9iSo<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The prosecutor investigating the case is assessing all documents in order to find out if the animals were captured for scientific or educational purposes, or if they were actually detained with an illegal purpose. Greenpeace Russia and other activists are also closely following the case.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Novaya Gazetta\u00a0<\/em>has also reported that the four companies (LLC Oceanarium DV, LLC Afalina, LLC Bely Kit and LLC Sochi Dolphinarium) that own these containers previously exported 13 killer whales to China between 2013 and 2016. These companies were supposedly granted permission to capture ten killer whales in the wild for educational purposes<\/em><\/strong>. However, seven of those killer whales were exported to China<\/em><\/strong>. Russian authorities are now investigating this case as a possible fraud.<\/p>\n

It is important to remember that in 1982, the International Whaling Commission\u00a0<\/a>(IWC) adopted a moratorium on commercial whaling, prohibiting participant countries of this international agreement to capture wild whales, except for a specific set of scientific, educational, and cultural purposes. Currently, the quota for capturing whales varies with purpose, country and species, in accordance with the method adopted by the IWC to avoid negative impact on cetacean populations. However, commercial whaling quota is currently zero (IWC 2019a) and there are now 101 individuals being held in captivity in Srednyaya Bay.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, not all countries participate and engage in this agreement. The map below shows the IWC member countries and when they joined the IWC. Surprisingly, both Russia and China are both IWC members despite their purported activities capturing, holding and selling cetaceans for profit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 03: IWC member countries and when they joined the IWC.
Source: IWC, 2019b.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, members can withdraw from the IWC. This past December there was another shocking news regarding Japan\u2019s decision to withdraw from the IWC to recommence commercial whaling for the first time in 30 years (Japan Times 2018). This news has led to concerns that this whale market will further diminish the already declining dolphin populations in the region but may also improve whale populations in the Southern Oceans where Japan has whaled illegally previously (Nature 2019).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Big Think 2018. Available at: <\/em>https:\/\/bigthink.com\/politics-current-affairs\/endangered-whales-black-market-russia?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

IWC 2019a. Available at:<\/em>https:\/\/iwc.int\/index.php?cID=html_76#permit<\/em><\/p>\n

IWC 2019b. Available at:<\/em>https:\/\/iwc.int\/members<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Japan Times 2018. Available at:\u00a0<\/em>https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2018\/12\/20\/national\/japan-withdraw-international-whaling-commission-bid-resume-commercial-whaling-sources\/#.XDT3di3MyfU<\/em><\/p>\n

Nature 2019. Nature<\/span> 565<\/strong>, 133 (2019). Available at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-019-00076-2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Snopes 2018. Available at: <\/em>https:\/\/www.snopes.com\/fact-check\/whales-in-jails\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Leila Lemos PhD candidate, Fisheries and Wildlife Department, OSU   This past November, headlines were made when a drone captured images of over 100 dolphins confined in Srednyaya Bay, Russia, for commercial reasons.   This\u00a0\u201cwhale jail\u201d\u00a0was installed in Srednyaya Bay to receive \u201cprisoners\u201d last July. The Russian newspaper\u00a0Novaya Gazeta\u00a0originally reported the story on … Continue reading Ocean Jail<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[171434,1237815,1237817,2309,1237812,916414,1237819,223923,1237822,1237809,1237824,202267,712984,1316,215998,1237823,1237813,1376,1237810,47669,1237808,1237826],"class_list":["post-2462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aquariums","tag-belugas","tag-black-market","tag-china","tag-commercial-hunting","tag-drone","tag-drone-footage","tag-fraud","tag-greenpeace","tag-illegal","tag-international-agreement","tag-investigation","tag-iwc","tag-japan","tag-killer-whales","tag-moratorium","tag-prisoners","tag-russia","tag-srednyaya-bay","tag-whale","tag-whale-jail","tag-withdraw"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2462"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2531,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462\/revisions\/2531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}