Marina Lacasse / The Canadian Press via AP

People watch as a killer whale surfaces through a small hole in the ice near Inukjuak in Northern Quebec on Jan. 8, 2013.

Maggie Okituk / Reuters

Two killer whales surface through a breathing hole in the ice of Hudson Bay on Jan. 9, 2013. The whales are part of a pod that is trapped in the sea ice.

Marina Lacasse / AP

Killer whales surface through a small hole in the ice on Jan. 8, 2013. Mayor Peter Inukpuk urged the Canadian government Wednesday to send an icebreaker as soon as possible to crack open the ice and help the pod of about a dozen trapped orcas find open water. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said it is sending officials to assess the situation.

By Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News — Eleven killer whales are “locked in” by ice in a Canadian bay, with only a small area of open water for them to surface, the mayor of a nearby village said as he appealed for help to save the marine mammals.

A hunter found the killer whales, also known as orcas, on Wednesday morning in Hudson Bay, in northeastern Canada. Two of the orcas appear to be adults; the remaining nine are smaller in size, said Petah Inukpuk, mayor of Inukjuak, an Inuit village home to 1,800, in Quebec. Other reports said there were 12 orcas in the pod. Read the full story.

UPDATED: The whales are now apparently free, according to the mayor of a nearby village.

Koen Van Weel / ANP via AFP - Getty Images

An orca named Morgan is lifted into a truck at the Dolphinarium of Harderwijk, the Netherlands, on Nov. 29, 2011, to be transfered to the Loro Parque zoo on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

The AP reports from AMSTERDAM:

A Dutch dolphin park hoisted a young killer whale onto a truck early Tuesday, preparing to transfer her to a Spanish amusement park after conservationists lost a legal battle to have her released into the open sea.

Morgan, a 3,085 pound female orca who is estimated to be about 3 years old, weighed only 880 pounds when she was rescued in shallow waters off the Dutch North Sea coast in June 2010.

The city of Harderwijk issued an emergency ban blocking "Free Morgan" demonstrations during the transfer, though a coalition of conservationists who sought to have her released said they have no plans to interfere in the operation.

"We would never do anything that could endanger Morgan," said coalition spokeswoman Nancy Slot. Read the full story.