President Putin attends orca show in Moscow

The biggest aquarium on the European continent, the Moskvarium, has opened in Moscow. Around 8,000 species of marine and freshwater life are presented, including three orcas, beluga whales and dolphins. Russia’s president Putin attended the opening show, where the orcas Narnia, Nord and Malishka (who is called Juliet during shows) performed tricks for the audience. In a news article, which also includes a video of the show, it is stated that the orcas were rescued from poachers in the Sea of Okhotsk. However, this is far from reality. The orcas were captured intentionally with approval from the Russian government, who issued a quota for 10 orcas a year to be captured from the wild for the entertainment industry. The youngest of the three orcas, Malishka, was captured in 2014, Narnia and Nord in 2012 and 2013 respectively. It is likely that Malishka was even captured illegally, as the quota for 2014 hadn’t been issued when the news about the captures surfaced. During the process of building the Moskvarium complex, Narnia and Nord were held in temporary tanks for several months.

Russia is the only country in the world where orcas are captured for public display. They are mostly exported to China, where the dolphinaria industry is experiencing a worrying boom at present.

WDC is working with scientists from the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP) to end the wild captures in the Okhotsk Sea. The data collected during fieldwork in this remote part of the world help to understand more about the populations and numbers of orcas in these waters. The scientists are aiming to prove to the Russian authorities that these numbers are considerably lower than the ones officials are using to calculate the yearly capture quota.