Rescuers and locals douse four beached killer whales with water for ten hours

In Kamchatka, locals and rescuers helped two adult killer whales and two calves when they got stuck in a shallow estuary at low tide.

People were dousing them with water for about ten hours while waiting for the tide to come in. Afterwards, the people escorted the whales into the sea by boat, the EMERCOM of Russia said.

Rescuers and volunteers had to manually move the killer whales to a deeper place. It was impossible to use any equipment on the silty bottom of the estuary. More than 30 people took part in the operation to rescue the whales.

More videos from the rescue operation available on Pravda.Ru Telegram channel.

Details

The Kamchatka Peninsula  is a 1,250-kilometre-long (777 mi) peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about 270,000 km² (100,000 sq mi). The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10,500-metre-deep (34,449 ft) Kuril–Kamchatka Trench.

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The orca (Orcinus orca), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. It is the only extant species in the genus Orcinus and is recognizable its black-and-white patterned body. A cosmopolitan species, they are found in diverse marine environments, from Arctic to Antarctic regions to tropical seas.