More bad news from Russia—Let the orcas be!
More bad news from Russia—Let the orcas be!
Friday, 14 August 2015
There hasn’t been much good news for orcas lately. In Moscow, Russia, earlier this month, the new Mosquarium opened, unveiling its three performing orcas — the first time ever that orcas have performed in Russia, and 50 years since the year Namu followed by Shamu, the first SeaWorld killer whale, was captured. Retro or what? Much of the rest of the world has moved on to think about a world beyond keeping whales and dolphins captive. Not Russia. Not now. It’s all guns blazing to make all the same mistakes made years before in other countries. Of course it’s not just Russian aquarium owners and captors, China too is about to open its first performing killer whale show, and Japan aquariums continue to go their own way. There are people opposed to captivity in Russia, China and Japan, but they are not in the majority.
Now this sad news: The Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP), which I co-direct for WDC, has obtained information that three more killer whales have been captured in the Okhotsk Sea in the Russian Far East. The first one, captured in early July, was transported through Sakhalinsky Bay on July 15, 2015. Since then, two more have been removed from their families from the same area.
Of the three, two have been captured by TINRO, the Russian Pacific Scientific Research Fisheries Center, based in Vladivostok in charge of coordinating fisheries research in the Russian Far East (Pacific) waters. The other one was caught by a local team thought to be hired by either by the White Sphere/White Whale/Aquatoria group of companies or by Primorsky Aquarium in Vladivostok which opens its new facility this autumn and is thought to want to exhibit killer whales.
I have to say that these captures are in direct opposition to expert advice. In October 2013, the world’s killer whale scientists and Russia’s “State Ecological Expertise” of marine mammal scientists advised that a zero quota to capture killer whales be given. This advice was refused in 2014. TINRO recommended keeping the quota at 10 as in previous years. We still don’t know population sizes of these killer whale ecotypes and communities in the Okhotsk Sea. If previous killer whale captures that occurred in the US, Canada and other countries are any indication, we may be seeing entire pods and communities being disrupted for decades, or even removed entirely. Attempting to manage whales like fish, TINRO supports the expansion of whale and dolphin captures.
Last year, four orcas were reported captured in the Okhotsk Sea, adding to seven from the previous two years. Of these, seven are estimated to be at Chimelong in China, and three others recently opened up the show at the new Moscow facility called Mosquarium. The location of the remaining orca is unknown.
The quota for the number of orca catches is based on flawed population estimates and does not consider the division of resident and transient ecotypes. Management and enforcement are both inadequate, which is leading to illegal capturing and the hushing up of whale deaths. At last September’s roundtable and subsequent discussions at the "Marine Mammals of Holarctic" conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, it was reported that the representative of TINRO denied all criticisms though he could not clearly answer any of the questions. He claimed that TINRO has no interest in orca capturing. Yet two days after the roundtable, TINRO announced an auction on their website to capture a young killer whale for their own purposes. And now the information, as reported above, is that TINRO has taken two orcas and supported the capture of another by commercial captors. The quota may allow for one more in this subregion, while up to 6 more are in the quota for other subregion in the Okhotsk Sea, although the logistics of capture killer whales in these other areas are much more difficult than Sakhalinsky Bay.
I am disturbed by the lack of transparent reporting about the captures. The first capture in 2004 had two mortalities of young females. We have no idea how many other killer whales may be dying in the process of these captures that have occurred over the past three years.
The captures are disappointing. The failure of management is disappointing. The lack of transparency speaks volumes. On the plus side, many Russian scientists are asking questions and demanding answers. But the answers are in short supply.
For more information on past captures in Russia, go to: http://bit.ly/1DPkxOH
© Erich Hoyt 2015, may be used with permission