A young female Orca captured on September 26 off the coast of Kamchatka and transported to a Black Sea facility operated by the Utrish Dolhinarium died on October 31st.

This was the first Orca captured by the Russians for the Aquarium trade and it has proven to be a tragedy.

Dr. Paul Spong of Orcalab in British Columbia contacted the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to request support. He has requested that concerned people join the protest against Russian Orca captures.

Here is a list of things you can do:

1. Send brief urgent messages to the Russian government, the Utrish Dolphinarium, and the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution expressing your feelings about the capture and deaths of these orcas, and about any plans for additional capture attempts.

It is best, by far, to fax your messages, so please go out of your way to do so. If you are unable to send a fax, make a phone call. Try not to just leave a message with an operator. If faxing or phoning is too costly or difficult, send an email.

Here is a list of contact names along with fax & phone numbers and email addresses:

Dr. Lev Mukhametov, Utrish Dolphinarium Ltd. 
Tel/fax: +7 (095) 958-1260
Email: utrish@online.ru

Dr. Dmitry S. Pavlov, Director A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution
Tel: +7 (095) 952-2088
Fax: +7 (095) 954-5534
Email: admin@sevin.ru

Vitaly G. Artyukhov,
Minister of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation,
Fax: +7 (095) 254 66 10; +7 (095) 254 43 10
Email: root@ecocom.ru and admin@mnr.gov.ru

President of the Russian Federation 
Vladimir PUTIN
Pl. Staraya 4
Kremlin
103132 Moscow
Russian Federation 
Fax: +7 095 206 51 73; +7 095 230 24 08 
Email: president@gov.ru
Webmail: http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/sdocs/mailto_president.shtml

2. Contact the Embassy or Consulate of the Russian Federation in your city or country:You can obtain phone & fax numbers + email addresses from individual Russian Federation web sites. You can easily locate these sites using Google or another search engine, e.g. searching for "Russian Federation Embassy Canada" brings you to http://www.rusembcanada.mid.ru where you can send an email and locate other contact details.

3. Contact your legislators: The U.S. and Canada and other countries are giving Russia millions of dollars in aid. Ask for amendments to Russian aid legislation that prohibit any spending if Russians are capturing orcas.

4. Forward this email to anyone you know who may be willing to help: Ask them to contact us at russianorcas@orcalab.org if they would like to be added to our email list for further news and action requests.

In the coming days and weeks we will be sending you further requests regarding actions that will help Russian orcas. Many THANKS for your efforts, and all best wishes from Hanson Island,

Paul & Helena Spong