25 WHALE BIOLOGISTS URGE RUSSIA TO STOP CAPTURING WILD ORCAS
Margie Fishman - November 15, 2018
This week, a group of prominent whale and dolphin biologists from across the globe, including Dr. Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), sent a letter urging a Russian federal agency to stop capturing free-ranging orcas in the Sea of Okhotsk for sale to marine parks overseas.
In a letter delivered Monday to the Far East office of the Russian Federal Service for Overseeing Natural Resources, 25 scientists noted that such captures are highly stressful to free-ranging orcas, leading to injuries, deaths, fractured social networks within pods and potential long-term population declines.
According to recent media reports, Russian prosecutors are now investigating why 90 belugas and 11 orcas have been confined since the summer to tiny enclosures, dubbed “whale jails" by local activists, off Russia's Pacific coast in the city of Nakhodka near Vladivostok. It is believed that many of the belugas and all of the orcas will be sold to Chinese aquariums. Some of the belugas may go to Russian aquariums.
It is illegal in Russia to capture cetaceans except for scientific and educational purposes; the companies capturing these whales claim an educational purpose. Belugas are worth tens of thousands of dollars to marine parks in China, while orcas are worth millions.
“These whales are being captured before Russian authorities complete an environmental assessment to determine whether such actions are sustainable,” said Dr. Rose, marine mammal scientist for AWI. “Aside from poor management practice, captures are without a doubt traumatic and harmful to the whales taken and the family members they leave behind. The science is in on this, but Russian authorities are ignoring it.”
This year, the total allowable catch (TAC) for free-ranging orcas in the Sea of Okhotsk is 13. Orcas killed or injured during capture attempts are excluded from the quota. Typically, capture operators have taken an average of 20 belugas a year for the live trade (zero to 80 over the past 18 years); 90 is unprecedented.
Several countries have passed domestic laws banning live captures of cetaceans in their waters, as well as imports and exports. International wildlife law, however, does not prohibit such captures, and only requires that the live cetacean trade be monitored. Russia and China have been conducting a brisk trade in belugas for years and, since 2013, an expanding trade in orcas. Neither country’s domestic law has safeguards to protect the conservation status of cetacean populations or the welfare of individual whales.
While Russian government officials are busy preparing a post-hoc environmental assessment for the capture of free-ranging orcas in Russian waters, the scientists urged them to stop issuing TACs for future live captures of orcas.
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If you missed out on calling Federal Ocean and Fisheries Minister Gail Shea today - you can always follow up tomorrow! We are looking to build a small call in army that keeps the pressure on!
"Capturing even one wild orca or dolphin disrupts the entire pod. To obtain a female dolphin of breeding age, for example, boats are used to chase the pod to shallow waters, where the animals are surrounded with nets that are gradually closed and lifted onto the boats. Unwanted dolphins are thrown back. Some die from shock or stress, and others slowly succumb to pneumonia when water enters their lungs through their blowholes. Pregnant females may spontaneously abort babies. In one instance, more than 200 panicked dolphins who had been corralled into a Japanese fishing port crashed into boat hulls and each other, becoming hopelessly entangled in nets during their attempt to find an escape route; many became exhausted and drowned.(3)
Orcas and dolphins who escape the ordeal of capture become frantic upon seeing their captured companions and may even try to save them. When Namu, a wild orca captured off the coast of Canada, was towed to the Seattle Public Aquarium, he was insured by Lloyd’s of London, according to the BBC, for “various contingencies including rescue attempts by other whales.”
"Following a number of public engagement efforts, NOAA Fisheries today announced it is denying the Georgia Aquarium’s request for a permit to import 18 beluga whales from Russia for public display in the United States."
