Russian President Vladimir Putin during his annual marathon phone-in on Thursday claimed kudos for the release of whales held in cramped pens and intended for commercial aquariums.

The release of eight beluga and killer whales comes after a huge international outcry over the holding in captivity of nearly 100 of the marine mammals.

The move will be seen by some as a publicity stunt to boost the president's popularity amid falling approval ratings.

The whales have been held in enclosures in far eastern Russia since last summer by commercial firms that planned to deliver them to aquariums, including in China where the industry is booming.

Scientists and celebrities had called for their release.

On Thursday, a state television journalist reported live from a gangway beside the enclosures near the far eastern port town of Nakhodka after eight were taken away to be released in their native habitat in what she hailed as a "miraculous effect of the phone-in".

There has been a debate over whether to release the whales directly from the pens off the port of Nakhodka or, in a much more costly process, return them to the Sea of Okhotsk where they were caught -- more than 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) to the north.

Russian officials said the eight whales, and others still in captivity, would all be freed in the Sea of Okhotosk.

"Right now two killer whales and six belugas are being taken to the Shantar Islands to finally set them free," the TV reporter said.

The feel-good resolution to the controversy was reached during Putin's phone-in, where he often resolves ordinary people's problems on the spot and upbraids officials.

Putin, who has previously taken part in tagging an endangered beluga whale to help conservation research, said that the issue had been the animals' high commercial value.

"The killer whales alone -- as far as I know -- are worth around 100 million dollars... When it's big money, problems are always hard to solve," Putin said.

"Thank God things have started moving."

Russian television filmed a container with whales being loaded onto a truck with a crane early in the morning on Thursday.

The whales will travel partly by boat along the Amur River, a television reporter said.

Deputy prime minister Alexei Gordeyev told Putin live on air that the government would change the law to ban hunting whales for "educational and cultural purposes" - a loophole used to capture these whales.

He said that the "right decision was taken on the recommendation of scientists" to release the mammals in their native habitat.

It will take "around four months" to release all the whales in the groups that they have been living in, he said.

The companies that caught the whales have been fined.

Captive beluga whales make epic journey from China to Iceland sanctuary
Reykjavik (AFP) June 19, 2019 - Two beluga whales from a Shanghai aquarium arrived in Iceland on Wednesday to live out their days in a unique marine sanctuary that conservationists hope will become a model for rehoming some 3,000 of the creatures currently in captivity.

Little White and Little Grey, two 12-year-old female belugas, left behind their previous lives entertaining visitors at the Changfeng Ocean World and were flown across the globe in specially tailored containers.

The whales, which each weigh about 900 kilogrammes (2,000 pounds) and measuring four metres (13 feet) will continue their epic journey by truck and ferry to the sanctuary at Klettsvik Bay at Heimaey, one of the Westman Islands off the south coast of Iceland.

The conservation charity Sea Life Trust, which has been at the forefront of the project, said the bay is the world's first open water beluga sanctuary and had been selected to "provide a more natural sub-Arctic environment and wilder habitat for these amazing whales to call home".

"We have been working with Little White and Little Grey for the last 18 months to make sure that they will be prepared and ready for the long journey," said Andy Bool, Head of Sea Life Trust.

After years in captivity, the whales will still be cared for in their new netted-off Icelandic sea pen, which covers 32,000 square metres, and is 10 metres deep, because it is thought they would not survive on their own in the wild.

And they will still see tourists, with a visitor centre built at the site and plans for small groups to be able to approach the whales by boat.

British-based Merlin Entertainments operates attractions including Legoland, The Tussauds Group and the Sea Life aquarium.

It took over Changfeng Ocean World in 2012 and started looking for a new environment to house Little White and Little Grey.

Originally from Russian Arctic waters, it is thought they were two or three years old when captured.

Klettsvik is where Keiko, the killer whale in the 1993 film "Free Willy", was flown in 1998. The orca was fully released in 2002 but did not fully adapt to life in the wild and died 18 months later in a Norwegian fjord.

Campaigners have criticised Merlin for continuing the beluga whale shows ahead of the transfer and pointed to the irony of choosing Iceland as a destination since it openly defies an international ban on hunting whales.

The Shanghai whales have been trained to hold their breath for longer, become physically stronger to cope with tides and currents, and are putting on blubber to help them cope with the colder water temperatures.

Belugas typically live for 40 to 60 years.

More than 3,000 whales and dolphins are kept in captivity and it is hoped that up to eight other belugas could join Little White and Little Grey in the future.

"We will be looking to potentially bringing other belugas to the sanctuary in time once Little White and Little Grey settle in," said Cathy Williamson of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation charity.

She added conservationists were "hoping that our sanctuary project will provide a blueprint for the development of sanctuaries in other parts of the world".

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Russia fines fishing firm running 'whale jail'
Moscow (AFP) June 7, 2019
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 co ... read more