More than a dozen orcas were trapped in the ice on Tuesday near Rausu, northeast of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, fighting for survival.
According to information from broadcaster NHK, the marine mammals were spotted by fishermen about a kilometer from the shore.
A video widely shared on social media shows the whales struggling to slip into a small hole in the ice, the only point where they can come to the surface to breathe.
“I saw about 13 orcas with their heads sticking out of the water. They seemed to be having difficulty breathing and it looked like there were three or four calves,” Seiichiro Tsuchiya, the author of the viral video filmed with a drone, told NHK.
Authorities said there was nothing they could do due to the nature of the drift ice, which would have to break away naturally for the whales to free themselves.
A similar event occurred in Rausu in 2005. Nine orcas then died in the ice.