A Russian court on Friday fined a fishing firm for illegally capturing killer whales and keeping them in an overcrowded "jail" in the country's far east.

The company that supplies sea mammals to aquariums is one of four firms keeping 10 killer whales and 87 beluga whales in a controversial facility near the port town of Nakhodka.

Media have nicknamed it a "whale jail" due to its crammed pens and the company's controversial plans to sell the animals to aquariums in nearby China.

A district court in the far eastern city of Vladivostok ruled that the White Whale company violated fishing regulations when it captured three killer whales, also called orcas, and ordered it to pay a fine of 28.1 million rubles ($432,000), news agencies and activists said.

Regional environmental activist Dmitry Lisitsyn, coordinator of Sakhalin Watch group, said he expected similar decisions about the rest of the killer whales and eventually belugas.

The fate of the Russian orcas and belugas — highly intelligent and social marine mammals — has scandalised the international community, with scientists and celebrities calling for their release.

Laws regarding the capture and keeping of marine mammals in Russia contain multiple loopholes.

The fishing firms have argued they had the proper paperwork and planned to deliver them to aquariums abroad.

The Russian government has promised to release the animals, but is not clear how and when this will be done.

This week Environment Minister Dmitry Kobylkin said that the animals will be released in "July or August", though previously officials named May or June.

Russia has for years been the only country where it is legal to capture live killer whales, most of which are the seal-eating variety of the species that scientists say is rare and must be protected.

People increasingly oppose using such sea mammals for entertainment in the West, but in China the industry is booming and many new facilities are under construction.

First dead endangered right whale of 2019 spotted in Canada waters
Ottawa (AFP) June 5, 2019 –

The first dead critically endangered North Atlantic right whale of 2019 has been spotted in Canada's Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the fisheries and oceans department said Wednesday.

The ministry said in a release that the animal carcass had been spotted drifting in the channel during an aerial surveillance flight on June 4.

"We are currently assessing the recovery and necropsy options," it said.

The Canadian government stepped up tracking of right whales after more than a dozen were found dead in 2017 in the busy seaway and off the coast of New England in the United States, which had prompted concern from marine biologists.

The area is home to nearly one quarter of the world's last 411 right whales, according to the most recent government figures.

The Marine Animal Response Society, which is working with the department, identified the deceased animal as a nine-year-old male known to researchers as Wolverine.

No deaths were reported last year.

Ottawa last year restricted snow crab fishing and the speeds of boats travelling in the Saint Lawrence seaway to prevent more deaths.

Conservation officials say that North Atlantic right whales are among the most threatened species in the world.