Whale stuck in river on Sea of Okhotsk island may be returned to sea at nighttime high tide
MOSCOW. Aug 10 (Interfax) - The Russian Natural Resources and Ecology Ministry has organized the rescue of a whale, which has gotten stuck in a river on the Bolshoi Shantar Island in the Khabarovsk Territory, the ministry said in a statement.
"Employees of the Joint Directorate of State Nature Reserves and National Parks of the Khabarovsk Territory, Zapovednoye Priamurye, are working to rescue a bowhead whale from a river estuary on Bolshoi Shantar Island," the statement said.
Specialists are expecting to return the whale to its natural habitat during the nighttime high tide.
Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Sergei Donskoi is personally controlling the whale rescue, it said.
As reported earlier, the whale, almost 13 meters long, was found stuck in the estuary of a river flowing from the Bolshoye Lake on Bolshoi Shantar Island of the Shantar Islands archipelago in the Sea of Okhotsk early on Thursday morning. The whale ran aground at low tide, at which point fire pumps were used to pour water over it.
