In the 1970s, aquariums-from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Orlando, Florida, to Mexico City-scrambled to net killer whales in European and North American waters. This 2003 hunt for killer whales off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far east, the first capture in Russian waters for commercial purposes, echoes earlier hunts oceans away. As the whale splashes and struggles, ramming its head against the floats, one captor yells, “It’s tangled, it’s tangled! It will drown!” A second crew member calmly replies, “It doesn’t matter, we’ll get another one.” Video by Far East Russia Orca Project, courtesy of Erich HoytĪ video of the ordeal shows another whale getting entangled in the net as it attempts an escape. The hunters had no experience in capturing orcas, and as a result, several whales became entangled in the net. In 2003, a net encircled members of several pods of killer whales in Kamchatka waters. Your browser does not support the video element. They cut the net and dumped the body into the ocean.
“Being busy with the first one, we didn’t notice the other one and it drowned,” the crew member said. Tangled deep down in the net, the calf had died. When the nets lifted, another body appeared-a small one. The divers on deck, paid to jump into the water and help lift captured animals onto the boat, were scared by the killer whale’s might they froze until other crew members reportedly forced them into action. One youngster’s pectoral fin got stuck between a float and the steel rope at the top of the net. The net emptied fast, but the hunters lucked out. “At the same time, the young animals dashed to the ship’s bow and tried to force through. They did it in an amazing way: a killer whale would come right up to the floats, and then roll over its back, upside down,” a crew member later recalled, in a written account of the capture. “The adults moved toward the stern and began to escape over the net. Within minutes, the animals discovered escape routes and rushed to break free. When the whales seemed calm enough, the crew flung the encircling nets, and quickly realized how many animals they faced: about 20 whales, adults and calves, frantically swam around inside the enclosure. So this time, the crew was patient and kept circling to lull the animals into complacency. After 10 failed capture attempts, the hunters knew their targets weren’t easy prey. The crew had already pursued several different whale groups over the past few days with no success. The boat circled a pod of killer whales feeding peacefully on fish. Listen now, download, or subscribe to “Hakai Magazine Audio Edition” through your favorite podcast app.
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INTO THE WILD BOOK FOR SALE DOWNLOAD
Stream or download audio For this article Ma| 2,300 words, about 16 minutes Share this article For Sale: Wild Russian Killer Whales As Westerners condemn live whale shows, Russia hunts and sells killer whales to Chinese amusement parks.
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