UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN ... - Bizjournals

Case 1:13-cv-03241-AT Document 1 Filed 09/30/13 Page 27 of 64would not sell 18 of its collected whales to another party until after NMFS made adetermination as to whether these animals could be imported into the UnitedStates. Thus, the whales in question were not collected for, nor are they owned by,Georgia Aquarium. If this case is unsuccessful, the decision as to the fate of thewhales will be made by their owner, the Russian collector.57. Of the 18 belugas whales included in the permit application, two werecollected in 2006, eleven were collected in 2010, and five were collected in 2011from the Sakhalin-Amur region of the Sea of Okhotsk. All whales were collectedin accordance with Russian law and under properly issued collection permits. Aspecial scientific panel of the International Union for the Conservation of Natureand Natural Resources noted in an official report published in 2011 that anindependent beluga whale expert and his staff participated in fieldwork in the Seaof Okhotsk in 2007, 2008, and 2010 and “were favorably impressed by the way theexperienced capture team caught and handled the whales.”58. During the short summer collection season, the collection team basedits operations at Chkalova Island in the Sakhalin-Amur region of the Sea ofOkhotsk. This site is approximately eight kilometers (five miles) northwest of theprimary collection site near Baydukova Island. Collection attempts were onlyinitiated during low tide when water depth was shallow (two to four meters [6.6 to27