Drone Footage of “Whale Jail”

Drone footage of almost 100 whales being kept in underwater “jails” off of the coast of Russia sparked international outrage in November 2018. Eleven orcas and 87 beluga whales were being kept in small pens in Srednyaya Bay in Russia’s Far East. (1)

The whales were caught in the summer of 2018 by four Russian firms that supply marine animals to aquariums. In Russia, it is legal to capture whales only for scientific or educational purposes. It is illegal to sell them to aquariums in other countries. Some environmental organizations believe that the firms planned to sell the whales to marine amusement parks in China. Orca sales bring in millions of dollars, while belugas are worth tens of thousands of dollars. (1, 2)

Whales’ Health in Jeopardy

There was ample concern for the whales’ health as they languished in their tiny underwater cells. Drone footage showed ice in and around their pens, causing fear that the whales were suffering from hypothermia. (1, 2)

While both types of whales are accustomed to cold water, they swim many miles each day, which keeps them warm. They were not able to do that in the sea pens. And orcas usually migrate south to warmer water for the winter. (1)

Some of the drone footage showed lesions on and around some of the orcas’ dorsal fins. Marine scientists looked at the video and said the lesions could be frostbite, a fungal or bacterial infection, or both. (1)

Veterinarian Tatyana Denisenko, a professor at the Moscow-based Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, visited the facility where the whales were kept. She took samples from the water and the orcas’ lesions.  “The skin of most of the 11 killer whales is thickly seeded with various microorganisms,” she said. This led her to believe that the whales’ food was being left in their pens and rotting. Then, it was infecting their skin. (1)

Whales Released Back Into the Wild

For some time, the fate of the whales was unknown. The Russian government took several months to determine whether or not the firms had captured the whales illegally. Finally, on April 8, 2019, the Russian government announced that it would work with two American NGOs to release the whales back into the wild. (1)

Over a period of four and a half months, 97 of the whales were released back into the sea. The whales were released in small groups and monitored by 70 specialists. Each whale had two people monitoring it during transport. Additionally, all of the whales were equipped with a GPS tracker before their release. (3)

The Russian government and NGOs completed the release process on November 10, 2019. 10 of the orcas and 37 of the belugas were released at their point of capture in the Sea of Okhotsk. The other 50 belugas were released at Uspeniya Bay due to “weather and funding concerns”, according to National Geographic. (3)

One of the orcas, Kirill, went missing in late February 2019. The owners of the facility filed a police report and said they believed he had escaped. Environmentalists who work with Free Russian Whales and know the facility well said that it’s unlikely that the orca would have been able to escape. Kirill had been ill for several months. He has still not been found. (3)