EXCLUSIVE: Russia to Conduct Second Release of Three Orcas from Whale Jail this Week
UPDATE: The transfer of orcas is in progress, but only three are being moved to the Sea of Okhotsk this time, rather than the six we had originally reported a couple of days ago. We will continue to glean what information we can from the release of these three orcas, and also about the six beluga whales and two orcas released two weeks ago.
The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute has been one of the lead organizations working globally to help return the Whale Jail whales of Russia to their home Sea of Okhotsk where they were captured last summer. We know that there were originally ten orcas and 87 beluga whales being held in the Whale Jail, after one orca and three beluga whales “disappeared” and are believed to have died.
We have just learned that the Russian government will continue the release process a second time by sending six orcas to the Sea of Okhotsk, starting in the next few days. Reports indicate that no beluga whales will be transported this time.
Two orcas and six beluga whales were previously released into the Sea of Okhotsk on June 27th -- returned, under government contract, by the same Russian companies that captured the whales in the first place. The whales were trucked to the inland city of Khabarovsk, on the Amur River, and then unloaded onto a barge floated down the Amur River into the Sea of Okhotsk.
Originally, these whales were expected to be offloaded into sea pens, but a storm destroyed the pens, and the whales were lifted out of their boxes in which they had traveled and dumped into the sea. (Presumably the sea pens will be repaired and used for this next release, giving the orcas some short time to acclimate.)
However, a number of steps urged by international scientific experts were ignored in this and quite probably future releases. Experts urged that the whales be transported by sea instead of by truck and barge, to avoid the stress of long road travel. Health issues needed to be addressed for some of the whales, and rehabilitation should have included the opportunity for the whales to regain their ability to catch live fish after so long a confinement. Furthermore, these whales are social animals and require the support of their home pods, but steps have not been taken to identify where wild whales are located and ensure that areas of whale release are proximate to these wild whales.
Video footage taken from a drone of the two orcas right after release showed the whales struggling to stay upright and get their blowholes clear of the ocean water, a sign, some experts have said, of physiological damage from being kept for more than six days of transport in small boxes not much bigger than the whales. The Russian government insists that radio tag data shows the orcas are now moving away from the release location. There is no word on the fate of the beluga whales – apparently, only one tag was attached to one of the group of six.
Now, this week, six more orcas will follow the same road and river in small containers to go back to the Sea of Okhotsk. International experts have strong doubts about their survival and whether necessary safeguards are being taken.
A court in Russia has fined at least two of the companies for illegally capturing the whales last summer, a total of 150.2 million rubles ($ 2.37 million). But the government also contracted with the companies to release the whales for 350 million rubles, more than double what they have been fined so far. The four companies that captured the whales stood to gain more than $100 million from the sales.
Also rumored is a lawsuit from the Chinese aquariums for breach of contract. According to sources, the aquariums paid the Russian capture companies $30 million up front to capture the whales and transport them and now have no captive whales.
The Russian government made a pledge to change the laws to prohibit captures of whales for “educational and cultural purposes,” the loophole that the whale captors have used to justify permits. However, no firm plans for making these policy and legal changes have been forthcoming. There will be a difficult legal battle in the Kremlin to implement a ban on captures.
We will continue to monitor the situation and report on findings when we receive them. Please check back for further updates.
Please donate as generously as you can to our efforts to return the Whale Jail whales to their homes and families. We are working with international scientists and Russian conservationists to also ensure no further whale captures take place.
