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.
The Russian government announced on Monday that the remaining beluga whales in the notorious Whale Jail near the port of Nakhodka have been released back into the ocean.
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 proved to the court system that the captures violated Russian law, which halted the trade and export of the captured beluga whales and orcas to China.
President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials announced plans to return the whales to their original ocean homes, after an international outcry was spurred by Russian activists, the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute, and many other national and international organizations, scientists and celebrities.
On November 8, 2019, nineteen beluga whales were released from the Whale Jail from a Russian research vessel, the Professor Kaganovsky. An additional thirteen beluga whales were loaded on a second scientific research vessel, the Zodiac, and then released. The final eighteen beluga whales were loaded onto the Professor Kaganovsky and released on November 10th.
Reuters reported that the Russian Fisheries Agency (VNIRO) issued a statement: "An operation on the release of the sea mammals to their natural habitat in (the region of) Primorye has been completed.” Several of the beluga whales were fit with radio transmitters to help determine the success of the releases.
However, marine mammal scientists are deeply concerned with the final releases. The ice conditions and winter weather in the Sea of Okhotsk made it impossible to release the beluga whales to their original waters. Biologists believed the best hope for release success was for the whales to be released in the area where they were captured so they would have a chance to join up with their original wild pods. It is not clear if the released beluga whales, far from the area where they were originally caught, will be able to integrate back into the wild ocean with their families.
So far, two of the ten released orcas have been spotted swimming with wild orca pods. There are no similar observations for the beluga whales yet. The effectiveness of the releases is still a mystery and very likely to remain one, as winter conditions make tracking the beluga whales difficult. Radio transmitters can fail due to short battery life, falling off the whales, etc.
IMMP is working with our 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.
Photos courtesy of Russian conservationists.
