Today Is Whales Day

The International Whales Day, established in 1986, when International Whale Committee put a ban on whale hunting, is celebrated today. The ban notwithstanding, the whale population is still decreasing dramatically. The endangered Okhotsk-Korean population in the Okhotsk Sea is but one example, the number of whales being just about 100. The danger comes from the north-east of the island of Sakhalin where whales' nesting place coexists with gas and oil field exploitation. As the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources reported today, urgent measures were taken lass summer to finish seismic exploration activities ahead of schedule to prevent further damaging the whale population. The activities were done by the Far East Petroleum Sea Geophysics foundation on behalf of the Exxon NL company. The Ministry of Natural Resources imposed certain limitation for the seismic exploration, which permitted whales to return to favourable for them waters, previously off-limits to them because of the exploration activities.