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Orca (symbolic image)
Photo: Audun Rikardsen/eurekalert/dpa
Things initially didn't look good for about ten orcas off the coast of Japan. They were trapped by drift ice and rescue operations seemed impossible. But now officials in the city of Rausu are reporting good news: The animals have probably managed to free themselves from the situation. Possibly because the ice could have loosened.
A video from Japanese broadcaster NHK showed the orcas frolicking in a gap 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," an official from Rausu told NHK.
City officials drove to the coast on Tuesday to see the situation for themselves. There they say they saw the orcas about a kilometer from the coast. Using drone footage, they identified 13 animals.
On Tuesday evening, city employees observed that the group had moved north. When they drove back to the spot the next morning, they no longer saw the animals. "We believe they were able to escape safely," the AP news agency quoted a city employee as saying.
The drone footage of the orcas in the ice sparked concern inside and outside Japan about the condition of the whales and calls for help from the Japanese government. A group of animal rights activists contacted the Defense Department to mobilize an icebreaker to free the whales, according to the AP.
In winter, parts of the sea off the coast of Japan are regularly covered with drift ice. According to NHK, this is not the first time that killer whales have gotten into trouble in the area. In 2005, several mammals died after becoming entangled in sea ice off Rausu.
ani/AP