The mammals, caught last year to be sold to marine parks or aquariums in China, were being kept in cramped conditions in a bay near the Pacific port of Nakhodka along with 11 orcas."An operation on the release of the sea mammals to their natural habitat in Primorye has been completed," the Russian Research Institute for Fisheries and Oceanology said in a statement.
"All the remaining belugas were released in the Bay of Assumption ... on Sunday, Nov 10," it said, adding that the operation had started five days earlier. The plight of the orcas, which were being held with 87 beluga whales, triggered an international outcry and celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio supported a petition that drew nearly 1.5 million signatures calling for their return to the ocean.
The Kremlin had ordered local authorities in the Russian Far East to intervene and officials started releasing them in batches in late June. The way the animals were released - which saw them transported for six days across 1,800km – had been criticised by Greenpeace and international scientists who have said it has been rushed, was conducted in secret and may have put the animals at risk of dying.
No pleasing Greenpeace a