MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian rescuers returned a young female killer whale to the Sea of Okhotsk on Thursday after the orca beached in the far east, the emergency situations ministry said.
Video released by the ministry showed a killer whale beached on snowy sand, but clearly breathing and making calls as residents lifted her towards the sea.
“The tide is rising, so there is hope that the killer whale will swim away into the sea,” the ministry said.
“The killer whale was in an extremely serious condition, there were already cracks on the skin. People watered her with seawater, and also dug a small channel from the sea.”
Last month, a family of killer whales was stranded in a silted estuary in Russia’s far east but were returned to the sea.
Orcas, or killer whales, belong to the sub-order of toothed whales but are also the largest member of the dolphin family, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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