Hero inspector saves two adult beluga whales and one beluga calf stranded on the beach 

The three beluga whales got stranded in the mouth of River Uda on the Sea of Okhotsk, known for its big tides when the sea retreats for up to two kilometres.

‘I got a phone call from a resident of Chumikan village at 4.30pm on 14 October. She said there were several beluga whales in the Uda river mouth after a low tide. I was on duty, so I could get there quickly’, said senior state inspector Alexey Paramonov. 

The stranded whales were some one and half a kilometres away from the sea, with a mother and a baby whale lying on the river bed some distance from each other, and another adult whale stuck on its side some distance away from them.

It was a cold evening with chilling wind and air temperature +2C, cooling down to -2C at night. 

Alexey Paramonov, 36, stayed with the whales until tide returned, keeping them safe and hydrated. Pictures: EMERCOM

The baby beluga was freezing in the wind, screaming pitifully as its stressed mother was hitting herself against the rocks, trying to move closer. 

Alexey carried the baby to the mother so that the female beluga stopped worrying, and covered it with his jacket. He then dug a pit underneath the other adult whale to turn it to the right position, and spent the next seven hours scaring away birds and dogs from the whales, trying to calm them down and keeping their eyes wet. 

‘Alexey checked the animals and saw that their skin was already wounded by birds, but it wasn’t too bad. He covered the shivering baby beluga with his jacket, I can't imagine how cold he was himself, then he replaced the jacket with a bigger throw. He did not pour water over the animals because they would suffer from hypothermia and die’, said rescuer Bakht Mavlanov, one of many local residents who praised Alexey as a hero on his social media page. 

High tide arrived at midnight, with all three animals safely leaving the beach. 

Last year three adult beluga whales were washed ashore in the same area by the village of Chumikan village, two of them were rescued with Alexey's help.

Pictures: Alexey Paramonov, 36, rescue video filmed by Alexey and shared by EMERCOM