Off the Japanese coast, a number of killer whales run around a small hole in the pack ice. There are no other options to catch your breath – the surrounding ice cover is too solid. A researcher discovers the group while flying his drone. The local authorities cannot do anything for the animals.
The situation is precarious for a dozen orcas: they are stuck in the ice. And: it will probably remain that way for a while. Because as the city of Rausu explained to broadcaster NHK, at the moment they can only wait for the ice to break and then they can move on.
“Temperatures are currently low, so it is possible that the orcas were trapped between the layers of drifting ice,” said an official from the local weather office in Kushiro, according to a report by Kyodo News.
Dramatic video
A video on NHK shows the orcas jumping around in a hole in the ice. According to the broadcaster, a fisherman informed the local coast guard. The city said the thick ice made it impossible to free the animals. “We have no choice but to wait for the ice to break so they can escape,” a Rausu official told NHK.
“They seemed to be gasping for air.”
When Seiichiro Tsuchiya wanted to use a drone to study the local sea lion population, he discovered the orcas, the report continues. “I saw about 13 orcas with their heads sticking out of a hole in the ice,” he said, according to the station. “They seemed to be gasping for air and it looked like there were three or four calves.”
“Orcas are mammals”
Mari Kobayashi of the University of Agriculture in Tokyo said, according to NHK, “Orcas are mammals,” so to breathe through their lungs they would have to come to the surface. The ice floes may have been larger than expected, making it difficult for the animals to reach the surface. She also pointed out that the footage showed three young orcas. “Orcas are very social animals. If they stay in the area as a group to protect their young, they may slowly die of exhaustion,” she said, according to Kyodo News.
In winter, parts of the sea off the coast of Japan are regularly covered with drift ice, ice that floats on the ocean surface. According to NHK, this is not the first time that orcas have run into trouble in the area. In 2005, several mammals died after becoming entangled in the sea ice near Rausu.
Source: Krone
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