“We have no choice but to wait for the ice to break up and for them to escape that way,” the official told public broadcaster NHK.
A school of killer whales is reportedly trapped and unable to escape the drifting ice off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island.
The orcas were reportedly first spotted on Tuesday morning public television NHK. A fisherman noticed at least 10 orcas stuck in thick floating ice about 1 kilometer offshore and alerted the Coast Guard.
“We have no choice but to wait for the ice to break and for them to escape that way,” an official from the city of Rausu told NHK.
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Wildlife Pro LLC, which conducts marine research in the area, posted a drone video on its Facebook page showing the mammals captured from above, CNN reports.
“I saw about 13 killer whales with their heads sticking out of a hole in the ice,” Seiichiro Tsuchiya, who recorded the video for Wildlife Pro LLC, told NHK. “They appeared to be struggling to breathe and appeared to involve three or four calves.”
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Rausu is located on the coast of Hokkaido’s Shiretoko Peninsula, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The sea along the coast of the island is covered with floating ice every winter, he reports Guard. The ice sheets barely moved due to a lack of wind this week, officials said.
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A similar incident occurred in 2005 when a group of killer whales were trapped without the ability to help them get out of the ice. This resulted in the death of most of the orcas as they waited for the ice to break through, according to NHK.
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Source: HIS Education