Director of the Dolphin rescue center "Delfa" Tatyana Beley, Associate Professor of the Department of Microbiology of the State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology K.I. Scryabina, Tatyana Denisenko together with VNIRO scientists discussed the work on monitoring the migrations of killer whales and Beluga whales returned from Srednyaya Bay in the Primorsky territory to the wild nature in 2019.
VNIRO specialists continue to monitor the movement of released animals by satellite tags installed on them. According to the Deputy Director for scientific work - Vyacheslav Bizikov, to date, all five labels on beluga, issued in November in Primorye in the number of 50 individuals, and 2 labels on beluga, issued in October in the Sakhalin Bay in the number of 25 individuals are working.
"We received the last signal from satellite killer whales on January 11, the animals were in the open waters of the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles from Hokkaido. These were two orcas - Harya and Zoya. As we predicted, the lifetime of the installed tags was slightly more than half a year.During this time we have received unique data telling about ways of migration of animals in winter time,"the scientist said.
Tatiana Beli shared information from volunteers watching Belukhami in the Nakhodka port area. "One beluga is constantly seen near the port, it then approaches the shore, then moves away from it.This behavior is typical for hunting beluga, we have seen it many times in wild animals," - she said.
According to current data from satellite tags, there are three tagged beluga in the vicinity of Nakhodka port and a group of animals appear to be concentrated in the area. "The Pray base in the coastal zone of Primorsky Krai allows the animals to successfully winter," - said Bizikov.
It was also noted that since the release of animals, no fact of death of marine mammals has been recorded.Joint monitoring and data exchange will continue.
During the meeting, VNIRO management presented to the participants of the working group of the Council of scientists on adaptation/readaptation of marine mammals gratitude for cooperation and memorable gifts in connection with the upcoming holiday on March 8.
Press service VNIRO
