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.
Reports from Russia confirm that two scientific vessels were being loaded with beluga whales from the notorious Whale Jail on November 5th, but bad weather halted the loading. The loading should commence again once the weather improves.
The big questions are:
(1) Are all the remaining 50 beluga whales being given their freedom, or are some going to be held back?
(2) How close to the area where they were originally caught will the belugas be released?
Four Russian companies illegally captured almost 100 orcas and beluga whales in summer 2018, for sale to Chinese aquariums for a lifetime of misery in small tanks doing tricks. Our colleagues in Russia were able to show the court system that the captures violated Russian law, and export of the beluga whales and orcas was halted.
President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials announced plans to return the whales to their original ocean homes, after an international outcry spurred by Russian activists, the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute, and many other national and international organizations, scientists and celebrities.
All of the orcas have been released as well as many of the beluga whales, with 50 beluga whales left in the Whale Jail.
Delays in loading the vessels with the beluga whales occured in this last release which began on November 1st. One rumor is that the four companies that originally caught the beluga whales suddenly refused to load the remaining beluga whales, claiming the whales belonged to them (ignoring the fact that the companies violated the law to catch the whales in the 2018 summer). A second rumor was that some of the beluga whales, as many as 12 or 13, in the Whale Jail were deemed too young to release back into the ocean, having been caught while still dependent on their mothers’ milk. Concerns have been expressed that these juvenile beluga whales would not survive if they could not find their home pods. This raises the question of whether some of the beluga whales will remain in the Whale Jail?
Still, the Russian Fisheries Agency (VNIRO) told Sputnik that the final 50 beluga whales will all be released.
Transport of the belugas has reportedly halted due to bad weather, but is expected to continue on November 8th.
A second problem worries marine mammal scientists: Due to ice conditions and winter weather in the Sea of Okhotsk, it is no longer feasible to release the beluga whales in the area where they were originally captured. Biologists believe the best hope for the releases to succeed is for the whales to be released in the area where they were captured so they have a chance to join up with their original wild pods. It is not clear that the released beluga whales will be able to integrate back into the wild ocean with their families.
So far, the evidence is that two of the ten orcas that have been released have been spotted swimming with wild orca pods. There are no similar observations of beluga whales, so the effectiveness of the releases is still a mystery and very likely to remain one, as winter conditions make following the beluga whales unfeasible.
Our colleagues in Russia, who have been key to gaining freedom for the whales, have chartered a boat and plan to follow the VNIRO scientific vessels to observe the release of the beluga whales.
IMMP will be working with these Russian colleagues further to help develop legislation to ban captures of whales and dolphins in Russian waters for captivity, a step promised by the government.
