The killer whales were first spotted by a fisherman, and officials are hoping the wind will push the sea ice away from them. Image: Wildlife Pro LLC
A pod of killer whales is trapped by sea ice off Hokkaido, Japan’s second largest island.
According to NHK World, a Japanese public broadcasting service, officials are at a loss for what to do to save them except wait for warmer weather or wind that will spread the ice out. “We have no choice but to wait for the ice to break up and for them to escape that way,” an official from the coastal town of Rausu told NHK.
The pod has at least ten killer whales in it and their predicament was first reported by a local fisherman who called the Rausu Coast Guard Station on Tuesday morning. Drones were sent up by a local wildlife organization called Wildlife Pro LLC. They spotted the whales attempting to make their way out of the maze of sea ice and into the open ocean.
“I saw about 13 killer whales with their heads sticking out of a hole in the ice,” a Wildlife Pro LLC employee told NHK. “They seemed to be struggling to breathe, and it looked like they included three or four calves.”
Every year, sea ice collects around Hokkaido’s coastline. According to CNN, it’s the lowest latitude sea ice on Earth, and, ironically, in recent years researchers have seen a steep decline in the amount of it as the climate warms.
This isn’t the first time killer whales have been trapped by ice in the area. In 2005, another pod became trapped by drift ice but died before anything could be done to save them.
