A pod of at least 10 killer whales has been reported missing a day after they became trapped in sea ice off Japan’s main northern coast – after officials said they had no way of rescuing them.
The pod of whales was spotted trapped in sea ice in Rausu Town in eastern Hokkaido by a local fisherman, who then reported the gruesome discovery to the Rausu Coast Guard Station on Tuesday morning.
Rescuers said they couldn’t get close to the orca because ice flows – large packs of floating ice – prevented them from reaching the whales, but they used drones to keep an eye on the whales on Tuesday.
By Wednesday, however, the pod had disappeared, Rausu official Masataka Shirayanagi told the Daily Mail.
Officials say the region’s lack of wind may play a role in trapping whales.
The ice flow does not divide as it should to make room for the pods to escape because there is no wind to help move them.
A killer whale pod has been spotted trapped in the ice off Japan’s northern coast. NHK
The ice surrounding Hokkaido’s coast is the lowest latitude sea ice in the world, but officials say that level has been declining over the years as the Earth warms.
The organization Wildlife Pro was nearby conducting separate marine research when the whale was reported trapped. They were able to capture drone footage of the orca.
The heart-wrenching 40-second video shows the whale struggling up and down from the water between ice flows.
“I saw about 13 killer whales with their heads sticking out of the hole in the ice,” the Wildlife Pro worker who shot the video told NHK.
“They seem to be breathing hard, and it looks like they include three or four calves.”
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The situation is similar to a 2005 incident where a group of killer whales were also trapped in drift ice off the city’s coast and later died, Rausu city officials told the outlet.
There are an estimated 50,000 killer whales in the world’s oceans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Some killer whale populations have declined in recent decades, and some have become endangered due to overfishing and habitat loss.
The average lifespan of male killer whales is about 30 years, but some exceed that and live to be at least 60 years old.
Females typically live about 50 years but there are cases where some have lived up to at least 90 years in the wild, according to NOAA.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
