SAPPORO – Around 10 killer whales found trapped in drift ice off Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido likely escaped as they appear to no longer be there, local officials said Wednesday.
“As the gap in the drift ice started to open, it’s likely they escaped,” said an official of the town of Rausu after the animals could not be spotted through binoculars Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, a pod of killer whales that included calves was seen from a small gap in the water’s surface around 1 kilometer from the coast, according to the town.
The town could not carry out a rescue operation as its vessels were unable to get to the animals, it said, after the space between the drift ice may have been frozen and blocked by low temperatures.
In a similar case in Rausu in February 2005, a number of killer whales died after around 10 of them became trapped in drift ice.
The town of Rausu is located on the Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido. Shiretoko is recognized as a World Natural Heritage Site by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
According to Associated Press, the officials returned to the coast Tuesday evening and saw the pod had moved to the north, and it was gone when they returned again Wednesday morning, Rausu official Masataka Shirayanagi said.
Officials said they believe the killer whales were able to free themselves from the drift ice as gaps between them grew.
“We believe they were able to escape safely,” Shirayanagi said.
The footage, captured by a drone flown by a conservationist group and shown on NHK national television and on social media, prompted concern in and outside Japan about the whales’ conditions and pleas for the Japanese government to help. One group submitted a request to the Defense Ministry to mobilize an ice breaker to help free them.
Although the trapped whales were in Japanese waters, they were not far from an island that is disputed by Japan and Russia. Japan marked the annual Northern Territory Day on Wednesday to renew its demand for the return of the Russian-held islands.
The dispute over the islands, which the former Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War II, has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their war hostilities. Moscow announced it was cutting off negotiations with Tokyo over Japanese sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Wednesday that killer whales are not designated as an endangered species in Japan and that officials were monitoring the situation while Japan and Russia communicated over the issue.
