Save Beluga Whales!
“BORN TO BE FREE: Shocking New Film Reveals Reality of Cruel Trade in Russian Beluga Whales!”
Have you ever looked a wild whale in the eye?
Come to Nova Scotia.
Where the most awe-filling wildlife adventure is Whale Watching. Summertime in the Bay of Fundy and off the rugged coast of Cape Breton, the humpbacks and Atlantic Pilot and Minke whales break the cold wild waters.
First the stirring on the blue-green waters. Then the magnificent animal lunges up before you, twists and crashes back into the sea, sending up a high plume of water.
Altogether, twelve species of whales live off the coasts of Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland). As well as porpoises, seals and everpresent screaming seagulls. No wonder people love to travel here. And folk artists love to carve, draw and paint it.
There are fewer whales in the seas. Some humans still hunt them for more than the thrill of just watching them. Some humans illegally hunt them for meat. Some humans hunt them to capture them alive — and imprison them forever.
The latest disturbing news is out of Russia: The Russian War on Whales
MOSCOW, Russia, Feb. 24, 2017 — The cruel trade in Russian beluga whales (the white whale), captured in the wild for sale to aquaria and travelling shows, has been condemned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) as shocking new footage reveals the true depth of the animals’ suffering for human entertainment.
The hard-hitting documentary, Born to be Free, follows 18 beluga whales captured from the wild in Russia in 2013 for display at the Georgia Aquarium in the US, who are stuck in tiny holding tanks for years while their ultimate fate is decided.
Public outrage led to an import ban, which started long judicial proceedings and left the belugas in limbo. At least one of the whales featured died and the surviving whales were finally sold and transported to aquariums in China.
In October, 2015, a federal judge had upheld the decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service to block the Georgia Aquarium from importing those 18 captured beluga.
Even after the negative legal decision and bad public feedback, the aquarium continued to argue its position:
“By studying and observing beluga whales in human care,” the aquarium stated on its website, “we are able to create baseline indicators to understand issues threatening this species in the wild.”
Saving Beluga Whales
“Through past research, we have gained insight into the effects of underwater sound levels on belugas, how they respond to increasing pathogens and changing water temperatures in the wild, and nutritional needs of belugas that face increasing challenges for food sources. Due to the remote locations and extreme climate inhabited by belugas, much of this research would be impossible to conduct in the wild.”
But the aquarium’s claim that importing the whales would help promote education and conservation of the animals was rejected. In the judge’s decision, they had failed to prove how the removal of the whales from the wild was sustainable, and how the permit would not increase future collections of belugas for public display.
The Born to be Free film, showcasing the first investigation of its kind in Russia, shines a light on the secret and often murky international trade in marine mammals. Examining all aspects of the supply chain, it gives a revealing and distressing insight into the reality of a life in captivity for the animal victims.
Masha Vorontsova, IFAW Russia Director, said: “Beluga whales are highly intelligent animals with a very complex and social family structure. IFAW believes that belugas and all whale species are not suited to a life in captivity and belong in the wild.
“Sadly, little thought is given to welfare in this trade driven by profit,” Masha continued. “A captured beluga, once it has been trained to eat dead fish instead of hunting live prey in the wild, can fetch up to US $1million.
“When I heard that three daring young Russian women wanted to document this issue I was very pleased that IFAW could help them tell the story and bring it to public attention. Anyone who doubts the suffering of these animals need only watch this film.
“IFAW urges the Russian government to ban all future wild capture of belugas and other cetaceans. We also ask members of the public not to support shows involving belugas or whales, which fuel this lucrative and unacceptably cruel trade.”
IFAW has worked for more than 20 years to protect Russia’s beluga whales from commercial exploitation for the whale meat trade, aquariums and harmful tourism activities. Since 1995, IFAW and researchers from the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology have operated a non-invasive research station monitoring belugas off the coast of the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea and assessing threats to the species. In 1999, IFAW successfully campaigned for a ban on the commercial hunting of Russian belugas to supply whale meat to Japan.
The film, directed by Gayane Petrosyan, premiered in Russia at the ECOCUP Green Documentary Film Festival. It’s being distributed by Reflexion Films and Dogwoof International and is available on Netflix.
Watch the Born to Be Free movie trailer on YouTube.
“Live Free, Mon Ami!” – Brian Alan Burhoe
About IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare):
Founded in 1969, IFAW rescues and protects animals around the world. With projects in more than 40 countries, IFAW rescues individual animals, works to prevent cruelty to animals, and advocates for the protection of wildlife and habitats. For more information, visit www.ifaw.org. Follow them on social media: @action4ifaw and Facebook/IFAW.
Wrap-up…
I know you love wildlife as much as we do, or you wouldn’t have read this far. Disturbing news, eh? More than disturbing — it brings out the eco-warrior in us.
Here’s one thing we can both do: don’t go to any aquarium or zoo that imprisons whales. Do go out in boats that watch them in the wilderness of our seas.
The whales don’t mind. They love playing for people in boats — if they didn’t they’d be knocking those boats over.
Have you ever looked a wild whale in the eye? You can!
==>> And to see my Rant on Circuses & Zoos, go to Animal Rights, Circuses, Tarzan & PETA XXX
SOURCE: International Fund for Animal Welfare, PR Newswire & Civilized Bears
Title: Capturing Russian Beluga Whales – Born To Be Free – Save the Whales
Keywords: $1million, animal welfare, beluga whales, born to be free, humpback whales, IFAW, killer whales, Nova Scotia, Russian war, Russian war on whales, save the whales, whales, whale watching.
