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| 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 beluga whales in sub-zero water in the Arctic. (Photo: voc.com.cn) |
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