Another Russian Whale Jail Orca Rejoins Wild Pod!
The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute is one of the lead organizations working globally to help return the Whale Jail whales of Russia to their home in the Sea of Okhotsk and permanently ban such wild captures in Russian waters.
Last week, researchers photographed a released Whale Jail orca swimming with a pod of 13 other wild orcas in Russia’s Sea of Okhotsk.
The orca, named “Zina,” is the second of the released orcas to have reintegrated with a wild pod. The pod was photographed swimming around the Shantar Islands on Sept. 9th, 2019. According to the researchers, Zina lost the satellite tag that the Russian Fisheries Agency placed on her during her release on August 6th.
“Some killer whales from the wild family in which Zina was met were previously identified, included in photo catalogs, and there is biological information on them,” said Vyacheslav Bizikov, deputy director for research at VNIRO (the Russian Fisheries Agency). “They are classified as a carnivorous ecotype.”
Another female orca named “Vasilievna” was photographed on August 30th swimming with wild orcas. At least two of the eleven orcas released from the Whale Jail appear to be adapting well to the wild ocean.
VNIRO also reports that a pair of beluga whales with transmitters are swimming together in the Gulf of Sakhalin, an area where wild orcas and beluga whales have been sighted by fishermen, which is another hopeful sign.
In the summer of 2018, a dozen orcas and 90 beluga whales were captured and placed in the Whale Jail, a crowded sea pen facility in Srednyaya Bay south of Vladivostok. The company that captured them intended to hold them there until selling them off to China. Local environmental groups working with the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute were successful in having the captures declared illegal and blocking export permits to Chinese aquariums.
The Russian grassroots groups, joined by IMMP and many other organizations and international scientists, mounted a successful campaign to convince the Russian government to release the orcas and belugas back to their home waters. There has been controversy over the releases, as scientists are concerned about the stress to the whales during transport (which takes a week by truck and barge) and about challenges to the whales being released far from their families and species in the Sea of Okhotsk.
To date, all of the orcas (one of the dozen originally caught “disappeared”) and a dozen beluga whales have been released. 75 beluga whales remain in the Whale Jail. The Russian government has said it will release them, while Greenpeace Russia has proposed that the government use Naval vessels that have the capacity to bring all the belugas back in one trip, rather than many small releases that are unlikely to be finished before the sea ices over.
IMMP is working closely with Russian conservationists to oppose any capture permits for beluga whales or dolphins in 2020 and towards a permanent ban on such wild captures in Russian waters.
The International Marine Mammal Project works to end the captures and captivity of orcas, beluga whales, and dolphins. wild captures cause high stress and damage to individuals caught and to the pod left behind. Your donations will help us succeed in ending these cruel captures! Thank you for your support.
