Two orcas from Businka pod.

Main objective of our project is to preserve orcas of Eastern Kamchatka and stop their capturing for oceanariums. During the last years several capture permits were granted for Eastern Kamchatka, one orca was caught and died in captivity and some other died during the capture. For these whales even capturing of several tens of animals can have seriously negative implications to population. Population estimates for orcas before detailed research have always been much larger than actual numbers, and the impact of capturing depends on number and size of pods and populations. Kamchatkan orcas are comparatively unexploited, and the most common opinion among Russian specialists and the public is that “there are a lot of orcas in Russia and capturing of several tens of animals will not affect the welfare of species”. That’s why to save Kamchatkan killer whales we need to study their pod and population structure and inform specialists and the public about it.

Specific goals of our project are to define the status of killer whale populations of Eastern Kamchatka and to turn the public opinion against the capturing of killer whales.