Three Russian Orcas Are Released
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 Sea of Okhotsk where they were captured last summer. Ten orcas and eighty-seven beluga whales were placed in the Whale Jail. These numbers do not include one orca and three beluga whales that “disappeared” soon after the captures. We believe they died.
Last week, three orcas from the notorious “whale jail” in Russia were trucked and barged to the Sea of Okhotsk, where they were released. This release appeared to go better for the orcas than the release last month. Two orcas and six beluga whales were previously released into the Sea of Okhotsk on June 27th, 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 eventually lifted out of their boxes in which they had traveled and dumped into the sea.
However, a number of steps urged by international experts were ignored in this release. 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.
Drone footage of the two orcas during the June 27th release showed the whales struggling to stay upright and get their blowholes clear of the ocean water - a sign, some experts say, of physiological damage from transport in confinement. The Russian government insists that radio tag data shows the orcas are moving away from the release location, around 250 miles from the place of release. No word on the fate of the beluga whales – apparently, only one tag was attached.
Video footage of the most recent release of three orcas on July 13th shows some promise. In the video, three orcas instead swimming strongly together.
There may be several reasons for this improved outcome. The transport and time contained in small boxes this time around was shorter than the June release, and reportedly the whales were held in a sea pen for a few hours to help acclimate them to ocean conditions. Russian scientists also report that the whales were massaged before release, a method of helping stimulate their muscles that have been inactive during the transport in small boxes.
Of the 87 beluga whales and ten orcas in the "whale jail", there are now five orcas and six beluga whales that have been released. An important step in releasing captured animals is integrating them with their wild counterparts. There is still inadequate information being released on the status of the released whales and whether or not any of them have reintegrated with wild pods.
The Russian government expects to release "whale jail" whales every two weeks throughout the summer. The next release effort is expected later this month, likely to include some or all of the remaining orcas. Russian officials have said they expect to release the remaining five orcas in the Whale Jail by September.
The Russian government made a pledge to ban 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 the ban on captures. The International Marine Mammal Project is working to ensure that the ban passes and extends to prohibit captures of all cetaceans as well as ban imports of cetaceans from other countries for entertainment purposes.
We will continue to monitor the "whale jail" situation and report on developments. Please check back for further updates.
