Vietnam Cargo Ship Sinks, 22 Dead: Shipping Firm

Jakarta Globe, December30, 2011

This picture taken on May 10, 2011 shows the Vinaline Queen cargo ship
 anchored at Saigon port in Ho Chi Minh City. A Vietnamese cargo boat that
 vanished near the Philippines on Christmas Day has sunk, killing 22 of its 23
crew members, Vietnam state shipping firm Vinalines said on Friday. (AFP Photo)   

    

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Hanoi. AVietnamese cargo boat that vanished near the Philippines on Christmas Day hassunk, killing 22 of its 23 crew members, Vietnam state shipping firm Vinalinessaid on Friday.

“Accordingto our initial information, only one sailor has been rescued and the vessel hasnot been found yet,” a Vinalines official based in Hanoi told AFP, asking notto be named.

TheVinalines Queen disappeared after passing Luzon island and apparently did notsend out a distress signal.

Late onFriday online newspaper Dan Tri reported that the surviving sailor, Dau NgocHung, was rescued by a British ship which was heading towards Singapore.

Vinalinessaid its ship was carrying more than 54,000 tonnes of nickel ore and wastravelling from Indonesia to China when it lost contact.

Vietnamappealed to the Philippines, Taiwan and Japanese coastguards for help infinding the vessel, but had heard nothing from the ship until now.

“We are nowfocussing our efforts on searching for the Vinalines Queen,” the companyofficial added.

Rescueexperts quoted in the local press said emergency equipment in the vessel shouldhave automatically sent SOS signals to satellites and coastal rescue stations.It is not yet clear why none was transmitted.

TheJapanese-built 190 meter Vinalines Queen was one of the largest and most moderncargo ships in the Vietnamese fleet, with a capacity of more than 56,000tonnes. It had been in service for Vinalines since 2005.

VietnamNational Shipping Lines, or Vinalines, is one of the communist country’s mainstate-owned enterprises.

Agence France-Presse

Huge Waves Damage Anti-Whaling Boat

Jakarta Globe, December 29, 2011

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said the Brigitte Bardot's hull
split when it was struck by a "rogue wave." (Agency Photo) 

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Sydney.Anti-whaling activists chasing the Japanese harpoon fleet suffered a majorsetback on Thursday when the hull of one of their ships cracked in massiveseas, forcing a second to divert to its rescue.

The SeaShepherd Conservation Society said the Brigitte Bardot’s hull split when it wasstruck by a “rogue wave” as it tailed the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru insix meter swells some 2,400 kilometers southwest of Australia.

“The crackhas been getting wider as the seas continue to pound the vessel,” the activistgroup said.

SeaShepherd spokesman Paul Watson said lead vessel the Steve Irwin was en route tothe troubled Brigitte Bardot, which has also suffered severe damage to one ofits pontoons, but warned it would take 20 hours to get there.

TheBardot’s captain, South African-born Jonathan Miles Renecle, was “confidentthat the ship will stay afloat until the Steve Irwin arrives” he added.

“This isdisappointing but these are hostile seas and we have always been prepared forsituations like this,” Watson said.

“Right nowthe safety of my crew on the Brigitte Bardot is our priority and we intend toreach the crew and then do what we can to save our ship.”

Theincident means just one Sea Shepherd vessel, the Bob Barker, is now tailing theJapanese fleet, which it intercepted on Sunday with the help of amilitary-style drone.

Watson saidall the crew were safe and uninjured and the Bardot, Sea Shepherd’s scoutvessel, was “repairable.”

“We’ll bebringing it back to Fremantle and then the Steve Irwin will return to supportthe Bob Barker,” he told Sky News via satellite phone from the Southern Ocean,estimating that it would be a five-day trip.

“It’s asetback, but you know, when you come down here you’re facing a number ofdangers, not just the Japanese whaling fleet but also the very remote area,it’s a hostile area weather-wise with ice,” he added.

Watson saidit was Sea Shepherd’s eighth season pursuing the whalers and it was “inevitablesomething (like this) is going to happen sometime, we’ll just deal with it andcarry on.

“I’m stillconfident that we’ll be able to intervene against the Japanese whalingoperations,” he said.

Australia’sMaritime Safety Authority said it had been monitoring the situation but therewas no active rescue afoot because Sea Shepherd was managing the situation.

“We wereaware of it, but it was really a monitoring brief for us because it was a SeaShepherd vessel to which another Sea Shepherd vessel was going to the aid,” aspokesman told AFP.

“We were incommunication with them but they’ve got it under control themselves now.”

Japan’sFisheries Agency, which commissions the annual whale hunt, routinely refuses tocomment on the issue and declined to be drawn on the damaged boat Thursday.

“I cannotmake any comment related to the (whaling) mission,” an agency official said.

SeaShepherd purchased the Australian-flagged Brigitte Bardot, a high-speed100-foot monohull racer, to replace the futuristic speedboat Ady Gil, whichsank during a fierce clash with the harpooners in January 2010.

Watson saidthere were 10 crew on board the stricken Bardot — three Britons, threeAmericans, an Australian, a Canadian, a Belgian and its South African captainRenecle.

Commercialwhaling is banned under an international treaty but Japan has since 1987 used aloophole to carry out “lethal research” in the name of science — a practicecondemned by environmentalists and anti-whaling nations.

Confrontationsbetween the whalers and increasingly sophisticated activists have escalated inrecent years and the Japanese cut their hunt short last season due to SeaShepherd harassment.

Japan’scoastguard has deployed an unspecified number of vessels to protect the whalingships, using some tsunami reconstruction funds, and the whalers are also suingthe activists in Washington seeking an injunction against what they say is a“life-threatening” campaign.

Agence France-Presse

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Dutch Unveil Latest Plan in War Against the Sea: a Massive Sandbar

Jakarta Globe, Nicolas Delaunay, December 26, 2011

The wind, waves and ocean currents, it is hoped, will drive the man-made
 peninsula of sand landward to replenish the coast of the Netherlands. 
(AFP Photo)   

          

Kijkduin,Netherlands. In its age-old war to keep back the sea, low-lying Netherlands hasdumped sand onto a surface larger than 200 football fields just off the coast —and will wait for nature to do the rest.

The wind,waves and ocean currents are the next “engineers” in this innovative projectthat will see the transferred sand — all 20 million cubic meters of it — drivenlandward to form a natural barrier against the North Sea’s relentlessonslaught. The elements have started moving the tip of the bar, which alreadyalmost touches land at low tide.

Over aperiod of 15 to 20 years, the sand will wash toward the coast, reinforcingbeaches and existing sand dunes that help protect the Netherlands, more than aquarter of which lies below sea level.

“Undernatural circumstances, the Dutch coast would erode away slowly,” said LeoLinnartz, an ecology expert who advised the project’s developers on behalf ofthe World Wide Fund for Nature. Without reinforcing fragile shores, floodswould eventually be inevitable, he said.

Over thedecades, the Dutch have developed world-renowned expertise in the field ofhydro-engineering, notably in constructing dams, dikes and bridges.

Around17,500 kilometers of embankment have already been built along its coast and rivers.

The newproject was conceived by a group of experts commissioned by the Dutchgovernment to help solve the country’s ongoing headache. It used dredgers tosuck up ocean-floor sand 10 kilometers off the coast then dump it closer toland. Some of the huge machines were able to carry as much as 10,000 cubicmeters of sand at one time.

If theexperiment works, the sandbar project, situated between the seaside suburbs ofKijkduin and Ter Heijde near The Hague, will be replicated elsewhere in thecountry. And the system could even be exported.

“We used todo it in such a way that we used a lot of stones and concrete and things likethat,” said Linnartz. “But nowadays we prefer to work together with nature, tocooperate with natural forces.”

The idea ofstrengthening the coastline with sand is not new, Linnartz said. But placing itoff the coast and allowing nature to take its course is not only a freshapproach to the problem but less harmful to the environment than simply dumpingmore sand on the dunes, he said.

Whiletraditional shoring up happens around every five years, the new plan based onthe sand’s natural movement will last 15 to 20 years.

AgenceFrance-Presse  

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Afsluitdijk, The Netherlands

Sea Shepherd demands release of Dutch activist

RNW, 26December 2011

The SeaShepherd Conservation Society has launched a campaign to obtain the immediaterelease of one of its activists, a Dutchman, arrested in Japan ten days ago.

Erwin Vermeulen
(Photo: Sea Shepherd)

Theanti-whaling organisation urges visitors to its facebook account to make callsand write letters to the Japanese foreign ministry and other authorites.

Accordingto Sea Shepherd, the Dutchman, a volunteer named Erwin Vermeulen, is still inShingu City Police custody. He was arrested on 16 December when attempting tofilm the transfer of dolphins from the sea to holding pens at the Japanese resortof Tajii.

An employeeclaims that Erwin pushed him; there were no other witnesses to this allegation.The organisation says a decision to release him or continue to keep him in jailis expected on 27 December.

Every year,Tajii is the scene of a massive dolphin hunt, with the Japanese authoritiesissuing 23,000 licenses to coastal areas for dolphin slaughter. Some animalsare sold to aquariums worldwide.

Vermeulenhad travelled to Japan at his own expense to collect footage of the slaughter.

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An undatedhandout photograph released by Sea Shepherd Conservation

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 Oscar-winning documentary,none were killed this year. 

(EPA/Sea Shepherd Conservation)

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Dike to house ‘blue energy’ plant

RNW, 23December 2011

Afsluitdijk, The Netherlands

The cabinethas approved funding totalling 20 million euros for sustainable energy projectson the Afsluitdijk, the 32-kilometre barrier that closed off the Zuiderzee fromthe open sea to create what is now the freshwater IJsselmeer lake.

The dikewill house an innovative osmotic power plant, or ‘blue energy’ plant, whichexploits pressure created when salt water passes through a membrane to mix withfresh water. Solar panels will also be mounted on the dike.

Thesustainable energy funding comes as part of a renovation package to increasethe safety of the Afsluitdijk, which was completed in 1932. In its presentstate the barrier can no longer guarantee protection against high water, theInfrastructure Ministry says.

The surfaceof the dike is to be reinforced along its entire length, and the sluices thatdrain excess water from the IJsselmeer into the sea will be given a 200-millioneuro overhaul.

Theregional authorities have also investigated opportunities to use the dike forrecreational purposes. The renovation project may also include the constructionof a marina. At present the dike serves as a road link between the west andnorth of the country.

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  (Photo: RNW)

Nigeria on alert as Shell announces worst oil spill in a decade

The oilcompany says up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled 75 miles off thecoast of the Niger delta

guardian.co.uk,John Vidal, Environment editor, Thursday 22 December 2011

An oil spill on the shores of the Niger Delta swamps. Shell has said the
 recent oil spill is likely to be worst in a decade. Photograph: Pius
Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

Nigeriancoastal and fishing communities were on Thursday put on alert after Shelladmitted to an oil spill that is likely to be the worst in the area for adecade, according to government officials..

The companysaid up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled on Wednesday while it wastransferred from a floating oil platform to a tanker 75 miles off the coast ofthe Niger delta.

Allproduction from the Bonga field, which produces around 200,000 barrels a day,was last night suspended. "Early indications show that less than 40,000barrels of oil have leaked in total. Spill response procedures have beeninitiated and emergency control and spill risk procedures are up andrunning," said Tony Okonedo, a Shell Nigeria spokesman.

Satellitepictures obtained by independent monitors Skytruth suggested that the spill was70km-long and was spread over 923 square kilometers (356 sq miles).

But aleading Nigerian human rights group said Shell's figures about the quantity ofoil spilled or the clean-up could not be relied on. "Shell says 40,000barrels were spilled and production was shut but we do not trust them becausepast incidents show that the company consistently under-reports the amounts andimpacts of its carelessness," said Nnimmo Bassey, head of Environmental Rights Action, based in Lagos.

"Weare alerting fisher folks and coastal communities to be on the look out. Itjust adds to the list of Shell's environmental atrocities in the Nigerdelta."

The spill,one of the worst off the coast of Nigeria in 10 years, is particularlyembarrassing for Shell, coming only four months after a major UN study said itcould take Shell and other oil companies 30 years and $1bn to clean spills inOgoniland, one small part of the oil-rich delta. The company also admittedresponsibility in August for two major spills in the Bodo region of the deltathat took place in 2008, but has yet to pay compensation.

Shell,which works in partnership with the Nigerian government in the delta, claimsthat 98% of all its oil spills are caused by vandalism, theft or sabotage bymilitants and only a minimal amount by deteriorating infrastructure. Butthis is disputed by communities.

YesterdayShell said it had also closed a Gulf of Mexico deep drilling operation afterspilling 319 barrels of contaminated fluids.

2 women share 1st kiss at US Navy ship's return

Associated Press, by Brock Vergakis, Dec 21, 2011

PettyOfficer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta, left, kisses her girlfriend of two years, 

Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek 

in Virginia Beach, Va., Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2011 after Gaeta's ship returned

 from 80 days at sea. It ís a time-honored tradition at Navy homecomings - one 

lucky sailor is chosen to be first off the ship for the long-awaited kiss witha loved

 one. On Wednesday, for the first time, the happily reunited couple wasgay.

(AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Brian J. Clark)

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VIRGINIABEACH, Va. (AP) -- A Navy tradition caught up with the repeal of the U.S.military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule on Wednesday when two womensailors became the first to share the coveted "first kiss" on thepier after one of them returned from 80 days at sea.

PettyOfficer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta of Placerville, Calif., descended from the USSOak Hill amphibious landing ship and shared a quick kiss in the rain with herpartner, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell of Los Angeles. Gaeta, 23, woreher Navy dress uniform while Snell, 22, wore a black leather jacket, scarf andblue jeans. The crowd screamed and waved flags around them.

"It'ssomething new, that's for sure," Gaeta told reporters after the kiss.

"It'snice to be able to be myself. It's been a long time coming."

For thehistorical significance of the kiss, there was little to differentiate it fromcountless others when a Navy ship pulls into its home port following adeployment. Neither the Navy nor the couple tried to draw attention to what washappening and many onlookers waiting for their loved ones to come off the shipwere busy talking among themselves.

DavidBauer, the commanding officer of the USS Oak Hill, said that Gaeta and Snell'skiss would largely be a non-event and the crew's reaction upon learning who wasselected to have the first kiss was positive.

"It'sgoing to happen and the crew's going to enjoy it. We're going to move on and itwon't overshadow the great things that this crew has accomplished over the pastthree months," Bauer said.

The shipreturned to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story following an80-day deployment to Central America. The crew of more than 300 participated inexercises involving the militaries of Honduras, Guatemala Colombia and Panamaas part of Amphibious-Southern Partnership Station 2012.

Both womenare Navy fire controlmen, who maintain and operate weapons systems on ships.They met at training school where they were roommates and have been dating fortwo years, which they said was difficult under "don't ask, don'ttell."

"Wedid have to hide it a lot in the beginning," Snell said. "A lot ofpeople were not always supportive of it in the beginning, but we can finally behonest about who we are in our relationship, so I'm happy."

Navyofficials said it was the first time on record that a same-sex couple waschosen to kiss first upon a ship's return. Sailors and their loved ones bought$1 raffle tickets for the opportunity. Gaeta said she bought $50 of tickets, afigure that she said pales in comparison to amounts that some other sailors andtheir loved ones had bought. The money was used to host a Christmas party forthe children of sailors.

Snell saidshe believes their experience won't be the last one for gays and lesbians inthe military.

"Ithink that it's something that is going to open a lot of doors, for not justour relationship, but all the other gay and lesbian relationships that are inthe military now," she said.

Snell isbased on the USS Bainbridge, the guided missile destroyer that helped rescuecargo captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates in 2009.

Online:Brock Vergakis can be reached at www.twitter.com/BrockVergakis

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President Barack Obama gestures as he talks about cutting the U.S. deficit
 by raising taxes, from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington
September 19, 2011. (Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing)

About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack) - “You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.”

"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)

Russia oil rig capsizes off Sakhalin, dozens missing

BBC News, 18December 2011

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The Kolskaya was built in 1985

At leastfour people have died and about 50 are missing after an oil drilling rig sankin freezing seas in the Russian far east.

TheKolskaya rig was being towed some 200km (125 miles) off Sakhalin island when itcapsized in a fierce storm.

Fourteenpeople have been rescued alive but it is feared the rig overturned before therest of the 67 people on board could escape on to life rafts.

Rescueefforts have been hampered by poor weather conditions.

Helicoptersand a plane helped scour the area amid high winds and waves of up to 12ft (4m)but the search was halted as night fell.

Empty liferafts

"Accordingto reports from the scene of the rescue operation, the Kolskaya platform hassunk completely," the regional head of the emergencies ministry, TaimurazKasayev, told a news briefing. 

Theaccident in temperatures of -17C at around 14:00 local time (0200 GMT) in theSea of Okhotsk happened as the rig was being towed from the eastern peninsulaof Kamchatka to Sakhalin by an icebreaker and a tug.

An unnamedregional emergencies ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency that the rig'sportholes had been "damaged by ice and waves, and water began going intothe vessel".

The crewhad been waiting to be evacuated by helicopter but the platform capsized andsank before they could get to their rescue rafts, he said.

Two out ofthe four life rafts were reportedly found with nobody on board.

Aninvestigation has been launched to decide whether any safety regulations wereviolated transporting the Kolskaya in bad weather.

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Stricken Russian boat in 'precarious position'

Google/AFP, 18 December 2011 

The Russian fishing boat Sparta, near the Antarctic ice shelf (AFP/USAF/File)

WELLINGTON— A stricken Russian fishing vessel stranded in icy Antarctic waters was in a"precarious position" Sunday, New Zealand rescuers said two daysafter the vessel was holed by an iceberg.

The crew ofthe Sparta had a scare overnight when temporary patches placed over the damagedsection of hull failed and the boat began taking on water again.

But severalhours later they reported they again had the situation under control.

TheRussian-flagged Sparta, with a crew of 32, sent out a distress call earlyFriday from near the Antarctic ice shelf when it was holed 1.5 metres below thewater line and started to list.

It will beseveral days before rescue ships can make their way through heavy sea ice toreach the vessel about 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 kilometres) southeast of NewZealand.

However, aNew Zealand Air Force Hercules was able to fly over the Sparta late Saturdayand drop off extra pumping equipment and fuel.

"Spartaremained in a precarious position," New Zealand search and rescuecoordinator Dave Wilson said.

"Thishighlights the importance of the mission in delivering the pumping equipmentyesterday. 

This equipment has enabled them to get on top of the water ingressagain, and they will now be working to fix the patches more securely."

Wilson saidwith rescue still days away, the stabilisation work was vital for the vesseland its crew.

"Theyhave life rafts but with the conditions down there, it?s much safer for them ifthey can wait for rescue on board their vessel."

Twovessels, the Sel Jevaer and Chiyo Maru No 3 were struggling to navigate acircuitous route through the ice and would take several days to reach Sparta?sposition.

A SouthKorean icebreaker, Araon, which was docked in New Zealand, has beencommissioned by the Sparta's owners to assist. It set sail early Sunday andwill take eight days to reach the area.

A NewZealand fishing boat, San Aspiring, was pulled from the rescue operation onSaturday after advising conditions were too difficult for it to proceed.

"SanAspiring was 470 nautical miles away from Sparta but would have had to travelmuch further than that to reach the vessel, because there was no direct linethrough the ice," Wilson said.

"Theyconfirmed the journey would take too long and would potentially put their owncrew in danger."

SouthKorean icebreaker Araon, left, approaches the Russian ship Sparta
which  hasbeen trapped due to an accident, in the Antarctic on Sunday. (EPA Photo)

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Boat with illegal migrants sinks off Indonesia, 300 missing

Reuters, Jakarta, Sat Dec17, 2011

(Reuters) -A boat carrying illegal immigrants heading for Australia sank off the coast ofeast Java in Indonesia and over 300 people were missing with many feared dead,a senior emergency official said.

Only 76people of 380 people on board had been rescued, said Sahrul Arifin, the head ofemergency and logistics at the East Java Disaster Mitigation Center.

He saidstrong waves wrecked the wooden boat about 90 km (56 miles) out to sea lateSaturday night. "Our search and rescue team have begun sweeping the wateraround where the accident took place but we are now sending body bags to thatarea," Arifin said.

He said thepassengers were mainly believed to be illegal migrants from countries includingIran and Afghanistan. Many boat people from the Middle East and Asia useIndonesia as a transit point en route to Australia.

Local TVshowed images of more than a dozen shocked-looking survivors huddled in aclinic in Trenggalek, a town on Java island's southern coast.

Manyeconomic migrants from the Middle East attempt to cross the Indian Ocean inboats in search of a better life in Australia.

Australia-basedrefugee advocate Jack Smit told Reuters first reports indicated the boat wasoverloaded. He suggested it might involve a new and inexperiencedpeople-smuggling operator trying to make money quickly, as the boat reportedlyleft from the same port in Java as another that sank recently.

"Itall points to new operators, and also the population of the boats ischanging," Smit, of Project SafeCom Inc, told Reuters. "It seems tome it's a new operator that took a risk that was too big."

Smit saidthere appeared to be an increasing number of Iranians taking to the boats andfewer Afghans than previously. He estimated that 2 to 5 percent of thousands ofasylum-seekers taking to boats in this way each year died en route, with manydeaths not reported.

Asylum-seekersoften pay thousands of dollars to board the boats, whose journeys are organizedby people-smuggling networks based in Indonesia using ramshackle vessels oftenpoorly equipped for the perilous journey to Australian waters. This sinking isthe latest of several such disasters in recent years.

(Reportingby Olivia Rondonuwu, Additional reporting by Chris McCall in Sydney; Editing byRaju Gopalakrishnan)

Chevron faces $10.6bn Brazil legal suit over oil spill

BBC News, 15December 2011

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Chevron says it got the leak
under control on 13 November

Prosecutorsin Brazil are demanding $10.6bn (£6.8bn) from US oil company Chevron forenvironmental damage caused when one of its oil wells leaked off the coast ofRio de Janeiro.

Theprosecutors also asked the court to immediately suspend the operations ofChevron and its drilling contractor, Transocean, in Brazil.

Brazil hasalready fined Chevron $28m for the spill on 8 November.

A Chevronofficial said the company had not yet been notified of the suit.

Theprosecutors who brought the case argued that "Chevron and Transoceanweren't capable of controlling the damages from a spill of 3,000 barrels ofoil, which proves a lack of environmental planning and management".

They alsoaccused Chevron of keeping information from Brazil's oil regulator, known by itsinitials ANP.

Chevron hasbeen banned from drilling any new wells for at least three months, while theANP investigates the spill.

Chevron hasaccepted full responsibility for the leak.

The companysaid it had underestimated the pressure of underwater oil deposits whiledrilling, causing oil to rush up the bore hole and seep into the surroundingseabed.

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Fears for lives of whales trapped in icy Russian waters

BBC News, 15December 2011

Beluga or white whales live in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters

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More than100 Beluga whales are trapped in ice floes in Russia's far north-east Chukotkaregion.

Localauthorities have urged Moscow to send an icebreaker to free them.

The whalesare unable to swim to clear water because of huge volumes of ice in a channelin the Bering Sea, a Chukotka region statement on its website said.

A lack offood in the small area where they are trapped, plus the advancing ice, meansthe animals are threatened with exhaustion and death, it said.

Localhunters reported the plight of the animals trapped in the Sinyavinsky channel,near the village of Yanrakynot, to the authorities.

ChukotkaGovernor Roman Kopin has written to Russia's transport and emergenciesministers asking them to send an icebreaker to the channel to release thetrapped whales.

The regionsays it is trying to do a survey to find the distance from the whales' locationto open water, but is being hampered by poor visibility.

Belugawhales are also known as white whales and live in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters.

They arelisted as "near-threatened" on the International Union forConservation of Nature's red list.

RussianPrime Minister Vladimir Putin is a fan of the Beluga whale, and heads Russia'sprogramme to protect the mammal. In 2009 on a visit to the Sea of Okhotsk hedonned a wetsuit to attach a transmitter to a Beluga named Dasha.

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Russian diver Natalia Avseenko, 36, stripped naked to swim with two
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.