After twenty-one years of diving as a commercial diver, witnessing what one can only describe as an attack on our marine life by the dumping of plastics, rubber tires and a million different kinds of trash, along with thousands of ‘ghost nets’ in our oceans; I decided to do what the governments and people who dumped into our oceans, were neglecting to do, clean up our harbours and eventually remove the ‘ghost nets’ that are killing marine life of all kinds. ‘Ghost nets’ are nets that are lost and are forever fishing.
A few years back while at work one day, I swam across an old fishing net with no ropes attached to it for hauling up, just sitting there on the bottom, fishing away. A ghost net. This particular ghost net contained many different kinds of marine life; crabs, Flounders, Manta Rays, birds, sea urchins and the most disturbing one of all, a harp seal. In its struggle to get air to breath, it had the net pulled together enough to get itself within a couple feet of the surface, where it drowned. Being a person who spends a tremendous amount of time under water, I know far to well how much fear that animal felt. Heartbreaking…
I have been doing some clean up over the years and have removed some ghost nets, but never documented it. Little over a month ago I began to clean up some ocean trash; plastics, tires and whatever I came across, from harbours and beaches. I have photographed and posted to my Facebook page most of my dives and the trash we collected. Even though I am loving what I’m doing and collecting a lot of ocean trash, I feel like my efforts are no where near enough. My plan is to have a crew of three volunteer divers, two tenders (boat operators) and as many volunteers on the shore, as possible. In order to do this, it will cost much more then I can afford on my own. I need your help.
Please help me in getting this plan put into action. Together we can grow Clean Harbours Initiative into something wonderful. We can inspire millions around the world to start cleaning up the trash from generations before us. To date, I have approximately $25,000.00 of my own money invested in Clean Harbours Initiative. We need so much more to keep the momentum going and keep the trash coming out of the water. So if you want to be a part of this Clean Harbours Initiative, please support us by liking and sharing our pic’s… but most of all, we need your donations. Message me if you can help… Thank you in advance for your generosity! Shawn Bath
The southern resident killer whales that feed and frolic in the Salish Sea have lost three members this year and about 20 per cent of their number in the past decade.
“Save our orcas”: Protest outside office of MP Jonathan Wilkinson | Vancouver Sun2:09
See video in article (of Save Our Orcas Demo Oct 3/18) :
Images of the orca J35 Tahlequah carrying her dead newborn for a heartbreaking 17 days over 1,600 kilometres were seen around the world.
Canadian and American veterinarians and biologists then joined forces in dramatic fashion to diagnose and treat the ailing three-year-old J50 Scarlet from the same pod, but failed to save her life.
Three deaths this summer — including the young male L92 Crewser, which disappeared in June — have focused the world’s attention on the difficulties facing southern resident killer whales like never before.
Now, the world will watch as we bring the 74 remaining community members back from the brink, or witness their extinction.
Baby orca whale is being pushed by her mother, J35, after being born off the coast near Victoria, British Columbia. The new orca died soon after being born. The mother was observed propping the newborn on her forehead and trying to keep it near the surface of the water.MICHAEL WEISS/CENTER FOR WHALE RESEARCH / AP
Biologists and conservationists hope the celebrity of the Salish Sea’s orcas can be used to save them.
“They are a symbol for a lot of species that share their ecosystem and some of them are doing poorly, too,” said Vancouver Aquarium veterinarian Marty Haulena.
Sea stars, chinook and sockeye salmon and rockfish populations are all in distress, but considerably less photogenic than orcas.
“Hopefully the southern residents have the star power to get some attention,” said Haulena.
Orcas have strong family bonds, they play, and apparently grieve their losses, making them uniquely relatable.
“That is why we take their deaths so hard,” said Mark Leiren-Young, director of The Hundred Year Old Whale and author of The Killer Whale Who Changed the World.
“The photos of a baby orca leaping through the air that went viral — captioned ‘learning to fly’ — that was J50 Scarlet,” he said. “She was the symbol of a baby boom, the symbol of hope. And this is the whale that we just watched die.”
J16 Slick — the mother of J50 Scarlet, the orca that scientists tried to save this summer — breaches while Scarletâs brother, J26 Mike, swims nearby last month. They are among the endangered population of southern resident orcas. Pictured Aug. 18, 2018.SEE NOTES / DIRECTION / PNG
Scientists who study the West Coast’s killer whales identify individuals by their dorsal fins and a unique white saddle patch. Each gets a number and then a name, and hence a public persona.
Vets and biologists are now gearing up to provide personalized medical attention to the southern residents.
Veterinary researcher Joe Gaydos of UC Davis, working with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has created individualized health records for every member, like you and I have with our family doctor.
“We need to know a lot more about the individual health of these animals,” said Haulena. “We can’t treat them as a population anymore. We have so few left that we need to know why every individual has died. And we don’t.”
Dr. Martin Haulena, Dr. Brad Hanson, and Trevor Foster prepare to administer an injection of antibiotics to J50.KATY FOSTER/NOAA FISHERIES / PNG
Gaydos has adapted an approach developed for a closely monitored group of mountain gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda.
“(The gorillas) each have a health record, they are all vaccinated, and they are treated medically when something goes wrong,” Haulena said.
American researchers are able to collect feces, breath samples and “snot” from the southern residents, and use darts to collect samples of skin and blubber, according to Lynne Barre, southern resident killer whale recovery co-ordinator for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“We slice and dice these samples and cross-reference it with other data in every way we can think of to get a full picture,” she said.
The physical condition of the whales is assessed from photographs and video taken from the water’s surface and from aerial drones.
“So we watch and listen and sometimes even smell their breath,” she said.
Blubber samples in particular reveal the presence of toxins, from long-banned DDT and PCBs to newer threats such as PBDE flame retardants.
“Some of these are endocrine disrupters that are persistent in the environment and accumulate over time, affecting reproduction and the immune system,” said Barre.
A study published last week in the journal Science found that southern residents are moderately affected by PCBs compared to killer whale groups in Brazil and Europe, yet the contamination is predicted to negatively affect their ability to reproduce.
PCBs accumulate and concentrate in fish-eating fish such as chinook.
One sign of hope is that the whales continue to mate and conceive.
Females from J, K and L pods are showing signs of pregnancy and in mid-September the southern residents from all three pods merged into a super-pod near Race Rocks on Vancouver Island.
“We heard that there was a lot of social activity going on,” said Barre.
Time for action
The southern residents that make their summer home in the Salish Sea between the Fraser River and Bamfield on the west coast of Vancouver Island haven’t successfully produced a calf in three years.
Three members died just this summer, including the male L92 Crewser, who was declared missing in June. He was just 23 and in his prime.
Just a decade ago, surviving calves were being born at a rate of three, four or five per year. But since November of 2015, not a single one has survived.
Forty surviving calves have been born to the group since 1998. Over the same period, 73 southern residents have died.
Most cetaceans have a higher mortality rate in the first year of life, said Haulena.
But many of the other 17 orcas that perished since 2012 were in their prime — 13, 18, 20 and 23 years old.
“Orcas in their prime absolutely should be surviving,” he said.
A 27-year-old male, K25, has recently showed signs of decline in aerial photos, which Barre characterized as a “warning signal.”
Evidence points to a lack of food — mainly chinook salmon — as a threat to the orcas’ survival. Underwater noise from shipping, ferries, commercial and recreational fishing boats, and whale watchers interferes with their ability to locate what little prey is available.
Six groups, including the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the David Suzuki Foundation, asked the courts on Sept. 5 to compel the federal government to issue an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act to protect the southern residents and their main food source, chinook salmon.
The chinook are themselves in deep crisis. The Columbia River chinook are listed as endangered in the U.S., and last week Fisheries and Oceans Canada released data showing this season’s chinook returns in the Fraser River were well below the historical average.
The southern residents, too, are listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act. The next status after endangered is “extirpated,” meaning they are reproductively non-viable, or dead. Ottawa is taking public input on the Species at Risk Act recovery strategy for northern and southern resident killer whales until Nov. 3.
Earlier this year the litigating groups asked Ottawa to curtail sport fishing and whale watching in critical feeding areas. The government responded by reducing the chinook catch by 25 to 35 per cent and increasing the buffer zone for whale watching to 200 metres.
Parts of the most important foraging areas in the Gulf Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca were closed to all fishing and partial closures were implemented at the mouth of the Fraser River.
“Since the death of three whales, including J50, we have upped our ask,” said Misty MacDuffee, a biologist for Raincoast. “Now we want the closure of all marine-based commercial and sport chinook fisheries.”
The groups are also calling for a full ban on whale watching for the southern residents.
Up to two dozen whale-watching vessels follow the group daily in their main feeding areas on the Salish Sea, she said.
A killer whale surfaces with a whale watching boat looking on in the Strait of Georgia.CA2HILL / GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
Whales or oil?
The plight of the southern residents is now central to the progress of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
In overturning the pipeline approval, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the National Energy Board should have considered the impact of increased tanker traffic on southern resident killer whales.
Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson hinted this week that further protections for killer whales could come before cabinet decides whether to approve the pipeline again, after the National Energy Board’s do-over review is complete.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion would increase the number of large vessels entering the Port of Vancouver by about six per week. The port currently serves 3,200 vessels a year.
Ottawa’s $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan — created in advance of Trans Mountain’s original approval — included plans to improve prey availability for the whales and to reduce underwater noise that interferes with the their ability to communicate and locate prey.
The government will invest an additional $167 million over five years in the Whales Initiative, supporting research, enforcement and education, and adding fisheries officers to ensure compliance to new regulations by anglers. Aerial surveillance over critical habitat has been increased by 30 per cent, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is spending $9.5 million on chinook habitat restoration on the Fraser, Thompson and Skeena Rivers and salmon streams on Vancouver Island, much of it in collaboration with First Nations.
A $150-million industry-funded oil spill protection plan was suspended when the pipeline approval was overturned.
A recent study published in the Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology suggests that a major oil spill near the orcas’ summer feeding grounds could affect up to 80 per cent of their critical habitat.
Animals such as orcas that spend a lot of time at the water’s surface are most likely to suffer from contact and ingestion of diluted bitumen, the main product to be exported by the proposed pipeline expansion, the authors said.
The port has implemented two programs aimed at reducing the impact of shipping on the southern residents.
Vessels travelling through the Strait of Juan de Fuca have been asked to shift their route as far south as possible within the shipping lane to create more distance between the ships and foraging areas.
In its fourth year, Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation is a voluntary program in which ships are asked to reduce their speed through the Haro Strait to reduce underwater noise.
Underwater microphones installed in the Haro Strait found that noise created by slower vessels was “significantly” reduced, by about 6 to 11 decibels.
“We asked vessels to slow down to 11 knots,” said Carrie Brown, the port’s director of environmental programs. “We’ve had 87 per cent participation by ships in the current slowdown period.”
The program doesn’t have a specific threshold or goal for the level of underwater noise; instead it operates on the notion that any reduction in noise will be of benefit.
American authorities are considering dramatic action to improve chinook stocks and there is real public pressure to demolish four Lower Snake River dams.
Washington Governor Jay Inlee’s Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force has just released draft recommendations that include expanding hatchery programs, real-time orca monitoring to close active fisheries when the southern residents are in the area and removing barriers from a river system that has 14 hydroelectric dams.
After the removal of a dam on the Elwha River in 2014, chinook are returning to spawning areas above the former dam site, according to the Klallam Nation.
A massive increase in local populations of harbour seals and sea lions is also contributing to prey scarcity, because they also selectively eat chinook, according to recent research published by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
The report also contemplates “management actions” to control the number of harbour seals in Puget Sound. Earlier this summer, the U.S. federal government authorized a cull of sea lions in the Columbia River.
“If we don’t increase the availability of chinook and lessen the toxic load in the chinook population then we are watching (the southern residents) vanish,” said Leiren-Young.
OTTAWA — The back-to-the-drawing board environmental review of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project will assess the impact of increased oil tanker traffic out to about 12 nautical miles from the B.C. coastline.
The National Energy Board released the decision Friday as it laid out the schedule for reconsidering its approval of the project by the Feb. 22 federal government deadline.
Dr. Robert Steedman, chief environment officer of the NEB, said the decision to limit the area of the assessment to 12 nautical miles, known as the territorial sea limit, was based on the comments received from interested parties. The precise reasons for the decision won’t be made public by the board until next week.
However, one of the environment groups that sued Ottawa over its original environmental review of the project, says the distance does not cut it.
“From the get go it looks like a political exercise, not an environmental one,” said Misty MacDuffee, a conservation biologist at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation in British Columbia.
Raincoast was one of the groups behind the successful lawsuit challenging federal approval of the expanded pipeline. It argued, and the court agreed, that cabinet and the National Energy Board erred in not considering the negative impacts of additional oil tankers on marine life, particularly on the highly endangered southern resident killer whales.
The court also found that the federal government had failed in its duty to consult with affect Indigenous groups.
The NEB had looked at some of those things in its 2015 review and even said it expected the increased tanker traffic would have a negative impact on the orcas. However, it also decided that marine shipping was outside its purview so it didn’t take that into account in deciding to give the project the green light.
After the Federal Court of Appeal struck down the approval in late August, Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi ordered the NEB to go back and do a new review of the marine tankers.
Raincoast had wanted the new review to cover the area known as the exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from shore. MacDuffee said the 12-mile distance could leave out a number of endangered or at-risk whales, such as blue whales, finn whales and sei whales.
MacDuffee said the NEB’s decision is very disappointing and might simply be setting the project on another collision course with the courts for failing to do a broad enough assessment.
Steedman said organizations can still submit comments to the board about the impact on other whales if they wish.
It’s estimated the project, which will triple the capacity of the existing pipeline, would result in an additional 30 oil tankers traversing the Burrard Inlet each month.
The NEB review will look at the environmental effects those extra ships will have on species at risk, the potential for oil spills and any mitigation measures that are feasible to prevent negative impacts from increased tanker traffic.
The board is imposing filing deadlines for interveners starting this month, will hear oral traditional evidence by Indigenous groups in November and December and will hear potential oral summary arguments in January.
The federal government has appointed former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci to oversee a new round of consultations with Indigenous communities. It has put no deadline on those consultations.
The Seattle Times / October 15, 2018 by Lynda V. Mapes
Southern resident orcas that frequent Puget Sound may not survive without breaching the Lower Snake River dams to help the salmon the orcas live on, scientists say.
Leading killer-whale scientists and researchers are calling for removal of four dams on the Lower Snake River and a boost of water over the dams to save southern resident killer whales from extinction.
The whales need chinook — their primary prey — year round, scientists state in their letter, and the spring chinook runs in particular returning to the Columbia and Snake are among the most important. That is because of the size, fat content and timing of those fish, making them critical for the whales to carry them over from the lean months of winter to the summer runs in the Fraser River, the scientists wrote.
The need for Columbia and Snake river fish is so acute, “we believe that restoration measures in this watershed are an essential piece of a larger orca conservation strategy. Indeed, we believe that southern resident orca survival and recovery may be impossible to achieve without it.”
Based on the science and the urgency of the current threats confronting the southern residents, the scientists recommended two top priorities for the task force in its recommendations for orca recovery: Immediately initiate processes to increase the spill of water over the dams on the Columbia and Snake, to create more natural river conditions, and to breach the Lower Snake River dams.
The letter comes as the death of three southern resident orcas in four months last summer, one from L pod and two in J pod, have added fuel to the long running-campaign to free the Snake.
Lower Snake River dam removal has been debated in the region for decades as a way to boost salmon runs. Three federal judges in a row in five rulings since 1994 also have called for an overhaul of hydropower operations by federal agencies at eight dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers to boost salmon survival, including a serious look at dam removal. The latest court review now underway will not be concluded until 2021.
However, the scientists called for urgent action now because the orcas are continuing to decline and need food. “Orca need more chinook salmon available on a year-round basis as quickly as possible,” the scientists wrote.
As orca advocates joined forces with dam busters, BPA has pushed back. In a recent press briefing, BPA managers said the Columbia and Snake produce only some of the fish the orcas use, and that the four Lower Snake River dams are important to the region.
The whales depend on chinook from rivers all over Puget Sound as well as the from the Fraser, Columbia and Snake rivers, a recent listing of fish runs important to the whales shows.
The first 15 salmon stocks on the priority list include fall, spring and summer Chinook salmon runs in rivers spanning from British Columbia to California, including the Fraser, Columbia, Snake and Sacramento rivers, as well as several rivers in Puget Sound watersheds.
Columbia and Snake rivers were once the biggest chinook producers in the world, but recovery efforts have been a long struggle.
Hatchery chinook recently have been surging, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows. Yet even good returns are a fraction of historic numbers. Wild runs have remained far below the level of adult returns required for recovery — let alone to prevent extinction.
Signing the letter were Sam Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington, and Deborah Giles, who is resident scientist at the University of Washington Friday Harbor Labs and the science and research director for the nonprofit Wild Orca.
Their research shows a steady increase in mortality and orca pregnancy failure due to lack of adequate food. Today the orca population among the southern residents stands at just 74 individual whales — a 35-year low.
As early chinook runs have declined on the Fraser, Columbia River fish runs have become even more important, Wasser said. “If they didn’t have that Columbia River infusion, they would really be cooked. … The Columbia replenishes you, and sustains you until the Fraser peaks. I don’t think unless you have those Columbia runs you can save these whales.”
Also signing the letter was David Bain, chief scientist for the nonprofit Orca Conservancy, and Katherine Ayers and other scientists whose work has documented that vessel noise disrupts orca feeding. That disruption, as well as toxins in the food chain, are more harmful to orcas when they do not have enough food, because the orcas when hungry metabolize the toxins stored in their fat.
The letter comes as the governor’s task force on orca recovery is set to convene one of its last meetings before making its recommendations to Gov. Jay Inslee, due Nov. 16.
The meetings are scheduled for all day Wednesday and Thursday at the Tacoma Landmark Convention Center at 47 St. Helens Ave., in the Plaza Grand Ballroom.
The agenda includes three hours scheduled for public testimony between 5 and 8 p.m. on Wednesday. A summary of public comments shows a bigger consensus for Lower Snake River Dam removal than for any other action considered for orca recovery.
OTTAWA — The National Energy Board will consider the impact of more oil tankers from the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline on marine life out to 12 nautical miles off the B.C. coastline.
But the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, one of the groups which sued Ottawa over the original environmental review of the project, says that distance does not cut it.
Misty MacDuffee, a conservation biologist at the foundation, says the distance — and the fact that groups like hers have just five weeks to submit evidence about their concerns — suggests to her this second review is just a political exercise and may result in another court challenge.
The second round of environmental assessment comes after the Federal Court of Appeal threw out approval for the pipeline project in August, citing insufficient consultation with Indigenous communities and the lack of attention paid to the environmental impacts from increased oil tanker traffic off the coast.
MacDuffee says limiting the zone for assessment to the 12 nautical mile territorial limit will leave out a number of at-risk species like blue whales and finn whales, and that the NEB should look at the impact all the way to what is known as the Exclusive Economic Zone, which is 200 nautical miles off shore.
Dr. Robert Steedman, chief environment officer of the NEB, says the distance decision was based on the comments received from interested parties and that concerns about any species at risk can still be raised by interveners in their submitted comments.
The critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales (SRKWs) that inhabit the Pacific Coast of Canada and the United States are balancing on a knife-edge. A study published today shows a 25% chance that these iconic whales could be lost within the next 100 years. With appropriate and resolute actions, however, this risk of extinction could be significantly reduced.
An international team of renowned scientists representing academic and conservation organizations in three countries has published a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Scientific Reports evaluating the relative importance of known threats that endanger Southern Resident killer whales. This population has experienced almost no growth over the past four decades and has declined in the last two decades.
The team, whose expertise included killer whale behaviour, ecology, bioacoustics, and population biology, was led by Robert Lacy, Ph.D., Conservation Scientist for the Chicago Zoological Society, and Paul Paquet, Ph.D., from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation. Together, the team assessed the viability of this small population of genetically isolated killer whales, which subsists largely on salmon. To evaluate the severity of known coast wide threats to the population (nutritional stress, pollutants, excessive noise), the new research considered more than 40 years of data collected by the Center for Whale Research regarding killer whale survival and reproduction. Then, by simulating various combinations and levels of these threats, the capacity for the population to recover was examined under different future scenarios.
“Not surprisingly, we found that SRKWs face a highly uncertain future with a low probability of recovery under existing conditions of food availability, pollutants, and vessel noise and disturbance,” said lead author Robert Lacy. “Conversely, increasing Chinook salmon abundance combined with reducing vessel noise and disturbance significantly increases the whales’ likelihood of long-term survival, reducing the risk of extinction.”
“The noises caused by commercial and recreational vessels of all types mask the frequencies used by killer whales to detect salmon and communicate. In addition, vessel disturbance changes the behaviour of whales, which also reduces their foraging efficiency,” said co-author Christopher Clark, PhD. “Killer whales need habitat full of salmon, but they also need a habitat quiet enough to find their food. For this already food-stressed population, reduced feeding leads to lower birthrates and lower survival.”
New research shows 25% chance Southern Residents will be gone in 100 yrs without action.
“Our study reconfirms that Chinook salmon abundance has the greatest influence on SRKW population health, but also demonstrates the powerful interaction of salmon abundance with vessel noise and disturbance,” noted co-author, Rob Williams, PhD. “We found that recovery of SRKWs requires a 30% increase in Chinook salmon above average levels. Or, we could double our conservation impact by increasing Chinook salmon abundance by 15% and reducing noise and disturbance by half.”
Unfortunately, key threats to the population are predicted to increase. This includes an expected increase in noise because of increased shipping and a predicted decrease in the abundance of Chinook salmon because of climate change.
“The most important message from our study is that with appropriate and resolute actions, the chance of survival for these iconic whales over the next 100 years can be significantly improved,” said co-author Paul Paquet. “Canadians, Americans, and global citizens care about the future of these whales.” Paquet concluded.
The Salish Sea’s Southern Resident killer whale population is one of the most critically endangered populations of marine mammals in Canada and the U.S.
Published on by Paul Paquet, Senior Scientist, Raincoast Conservation Foundation
Photo by Brandon Harvey.
The world’s oceans are increasingly subject to a multitude of human-caused pressures, with continental shelf ecosystems among the most heavily affected. As a result, Canada’s Salish Sea is now a patchwork of degraded environments where harmful effects on marine mammals include damaging levels of noise, lack of food, toxic pollutants, fatal collisions with ships and disruptive vessel traffic. Predictably, the Salish Sea’s Southern Resident killer whale population is one of the most critically endangered populations of marine mammals in Canada and the U.S.
Both countries list this transboundary population as endangered, citing three primary risk factors: lack of the whales’ preferred prey, Chinook salmon; chronic and acute underwater noise and physical disturbance (e.g., from ferries, commercial ships, whale-watching boats, fishing boats, and recreational traffic); and high levels of contaminants, including polychlorinated biphenyls. Consequently, under existing conditions of food availability, pollutants and vessel traffic the Southern Residents face a highly uncertain future. Routine starvation of whales is one grim manifestation of these cumulative human caused disturbances.
Conservation science is tasked with quantifying the relative importance of multiple threats to endangered species, both to determine if cumulative disturbances exceed sustainable levels and to guide effective recovery plans. In so doing, the first axiom is that the most severe threats of extinction should be abated while the addition of new hazards is stopped. Accordingly, endangered Southern Resident killer whales are a conservation reliant species requiring ongoing protection because they live in a degraded environment that can no longer sustain them. All available evidence confirms the present level of human caused disturbances is more than the whales can tolerate.
The Salish Sea is now a patchwork of degraded environments.
Optimistically, the current threats exposing the population to extinction and preventing recovery could be moderated but not eliminated. Rarely understood but critically important, multiple stressors that are moderated are still cumulative. Combined and acting synergistically, even mitigated multiple stressors would likely remain significantly higher than all the disturbances whales coevolved with and progressively adapted to over millennia.
Experiencing almost no population growth, Southern Residents have remained at a population size of less than 100 individuals for the last four decades, with an average of 85 individuals in the last decade. The population now stands at 76 individuals. At present, nutritional stress associated with reduced abundance and availability of the whales’ primary prey, Chinook salmon, is the most important negative influence affecting population wellbeing. Any future conditions that increase noise, reduce food, or expose individuals to random death, will significantly increase the risk of extinction. If any of these threats combine, extinction of the Southern Residents within the next century is probable.
Our science indicates that we can make a difference, if we act now.
For example, increased noise from tankers will diminish the ability of killer whales to communicate and acquire food. Such chronic disturbances resulting in even small reductions in foraging efficiency will affect survival of individuals and translate to population-level adverse effects, which in turn threaten persistence of the population. This is especially critical for small, genetically isolated and slow-reproducing populations, because these populations lack resilience and are unable to recover from disturbances. Moreover, the enduring threat of loud tankers combined with the additional possibility of an oil spill places these killer whales in untenable and unacceptable peril. Even if the probability of a large oil spill is low, the consequence of such an event is potentially catastrophic.
Southern Resident killer whales are already severely compromised and unable to effectively contend with additional disturbance. Yet, the obvious folly in attempting to recover this impaired population while knowingly subjecting it to additional harm seems to have escaped the federal government. By acquiescing to the demands of industry and consistently failing to confront prevalent human related threats causing the endangerment of these killer whales, the federal government appears willing to sacrifice Canada’s Southern Residents for more unsustainable industrial development. Their decision is distressing considering the Southern Residents’ already fragile population and is destined to hasten the demise of this iconic and unique population of killer whales.
Southern Resident orcas are believed to number just 76, in three pods.JOAN LOPEZ/ECHO / PNG
Stopping all fishing of chinook, including harvesting by First Nations, likely won’t provide an instant food solution for endangered Southern Resident killer whales, the president of the Pacific Salmon Foundation said Tuesday.
Brian Riddell, a former senior official with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said in an interview there are limited options to help the whales other than to stop fishing. “Can you do it? Certainly. That’s something that could be done right now, if that was the priority. You could stop all fishing and put all the fish on the spawning grounds.
“It depends how far you want to take it. These things have repercussions — First Nations’ use, for example. I think everything’s on the table.”
The Pacific Salmon Commission reports a total catch of 1.69 million chinook in 2016, including 1.15 million by Americans and the rest by Canadian fisheries.
Riddell said he is not convinced that taking “large-scale immediate actions are going to make an immediate difference” for the whales. He also believes it is possible to provide limited in-river First Nations chinook catches without having a major impact on productivity. In Canada, only conservation takes priority over First Nations’ food, social, and ceremonial fishing.
What is needed over the longer term is to increase the overall abundance of chinook, including protection of their habitat, while acknowledging the impact of other marine predators on those same chinook, he said. “That’s probably the only way we’ll make a significant difference.” One option for increasing productivity is to acclimate chinook smolts through their transition to sea water by feeding them in temporary sea-pens.
Chinook is the largest species of Pacific salmon and the preferred diet of the Southern Resident killer whales, especially in summer. The fish typically has a five-year life cycle.
“There’s no question the whales are struggling in terms of diet,” Riddell said. “We have to make a major change. If the decision is that Southern Resident orcas are the priority for recovery, then we’ll have to provide additional food and other actions as well.”
Southern Residents are thought to number just 76 in three pods after a young male showing signs of malnutrition disappeared last month. Lack of chinook is thought to be a leading cause of their decline, with other factors including pollution and vessel noise.
Riddell also said that ongoing research involving the foundation and the University of B.C. shows that harbour seals can have a substantial impact on juvenile chinook migrating downriver to sea and that society at some point may have to consider culling seal populations.
“If you show evidence … I’m quite sure that option is going to be brought up,” he said. “There are a lot of seals around. They’re a significant source of (chinook) mortality.”
Birds are also a significant predator of juvenile fish swimming downstream.
Riddell said that fishing impacts on chinook have already declined by at least 50 per cent in recent decades. The harvest rate on the highly productive Harrison River white chinook population is now below 30 per cent.
“It’s not going to be a single action that’s going to save the whales,” he said. “What is the timeframe in peoples’ minds to accomplish this? Something has to change. It’s a matter of how good our data is and what steps can be taken. Invariably, it’s a longer-term goal.”
He added that it also must be established just how many chinook the residents require for their survival. “If we err on the high side, we’ll have a very significant effect on other uses.”
Mammal-eating transient killer whales have an abundance of prey, especially seals, and continue to increase steadily, numbering close to 300 from Washington to southeast Alaska.
Riddell chaired an “invitation only” panel discussion Tuesday in Vancouver on prey availability for Southern Resident killer whales. A multi-stakeholder symposium on the killer whales continues Wednesday and Thursday, however, the federal government has banned the news media and general public despite campaigning on a platform of open science.
Lara Sloan, a spokeswoman for federal fisheries, said organizers cited lack of space and a concern that stakeholders would not feel free to speak their minds if reporters are present.
She also insisted “this isn’t a science symposium,” although the official program for the event states that the top objective is to “ensure that all interested parties have a full understanding of the most recent science” on Southern Resident killer whales.
The symposium is being held as part of the federal government’s Oceans Protection Plan that was announced last November.
A female resident orca whale breaches while swimming in Puget Sound. Scientists and government officials are in Vancouver this week to discuss ways of protecting southern resident killer whales which number less than 80. (Elaine Thompson/The Associated Press)
Environmentalists invited to Vancouver’s orca symposium left frustrated after hearing few solutions from the federal government to restore B.C.’s dwindling killer whale population.
Six orcas along the B.C. South Coast have died over the last two years, reducing the total population to 77. Last month, a young killer whale was spotted malnourished along the south coast. Researchers believe it has also died.
“We haven’t heard anything from the government yet about what they’re going to do this week, next month, in the next six months, to protect the orcas — and that’s what we’re waiting to hear,” said Christianne Wilhelmson executive director of the Georgia Strait Alliance.
More than 200 stakeholders were in attendance at the event, which runs until Thursday.
An orca whale breaches with Mount Baker in the background. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File) (Elaine Thompson/The Associated Press)
Wilhelmson says immediate measures discussed by experts in attendance included closing chinook salmon fisheries, and reducing tanker traffic along the Salish Sea.
DFO invests $7.2 million
Officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have yet to commit to either policy, however, the federal government has reaffirmed its promise to monitor waters along the South Coast.
On Wednesday, the DFO announced $7.2 million in funding for hydrophones and oceanographic radars to monitor noise pollution in key habitats along the B.C. coast. The money will go to the University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada.
“We’re making investments in science, so that we can make better decision making when it comes to actual objectives that we’re trying to meet like protecting the southern resident killer whales,” said Terry Beach, parliamentary secretary for the DFO.
“We’re actually putting more science in the water over the last number of years than we have in the last decade.”
A female orca leaps from the water while breaching in Puget Sound west of Seattle. (Elaine Thompson/The Associated Press)
Beach says the DFO hopes researchers in attendance of the symposium will present actionable plans that could be taken back to Ottawa.
‘Be courageous’
Wilhelmson says the research commitments from the DFO are welcomed, but that industry and the federal government need to take concrete steps to begin to help orcas now.
“The reality is there aren’t enough fish in the sea for the orcas, and we continue to fish the chinook — so that only makes things worse for them,” she said.
“We don’t know what the long term impacts of a [chinook fishery] closure will be, but we’ll never know to what extent it will benefit the species unless we do it.”
“We all have to be courageous if we say we really value the species.”
Southern resident orcas are one of the most highly studied whale populations in the world. Every individual has a name and is photographed for an annual census that has been conducted for over 40 years by the Centre for Whale Research. We know their family trees, when they were born, who they favour spending time with, and even their individual personality traits. What we don’t know is where they are.
Georgia Strait by Rachael Merrett / September 6, 2017
Southern resident orcas are one of the most highly studied whale populations in the world. Every individual has a name and is photographed for an annual census that has been conducted for over 40 years by the Centre for Whale Research. We know their family trees, when they were born, who they favour spending time with, and even their individual personality traits. What we don’t know is where they are.
Research on the southern residents began in 1976 when the capture of wild killer whales for aquariums from the waters off the Pacific Northwest officially ended. Dr. Michael Bigg, a scientist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, coined the term ‘residents’ to describe this family of whales as they were seen year after year in the inland waters of south Vancouver Island and Washington from spring until the end of fall, as they fed on the abundant runs of chinook salmon heading towards the Fraser River.
Since 2013 sightings of the resident killer whales within the Salish Sea have become scarce. Historically, years with low resident sightings correspond with low chinook salmon returns to the Fraser River. According to the Albion Test Fishery, 2013 was one of the two worst years on record for chinook salmon returns to the Fraser River (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Graph sourced from the Center for Whale Research. The graph demonstrates the cumulative catch per unit effort (CPUE) of Fraser River chinook salmon as of July 1 for each of the years beginning in 1988, with the dashed line representing an adjustment for the late start in the fishery opening using 2012 as the reference year for a late start. Click on image to enlarge.
J-pod – one of 3 pods that make up the resident orca population – has historically been the pod that is seen most often in the Salish Sea during the summer. However, in 2013 they were only seen 45 times by the Center for Whale Research from April to the end of September, a period of time when they tend to feed on chinook salmon heading to the Fraser River. Compare this to 2004 when chinook salmon returns were higher: J-pod was seen 150 times in that time span.
Figure 2: Graph sourced from the Center for Whale Research. The graph depicts the number of sightings of J-pod from 2004 to 2016 in their core summer habitat from April through September. Sightings for 2016 only cover April, May and June. Solid coloured bars illustrate sightings of the entire pod while striped bars represent sightings with only parts of the pods present. Click on image to enlarge.
Another record low year for Fraser River chinook returns occurred in 2016 and that year southern residents were only seen five times in the month of June. This season, once again, we are seeing record low returns of chinook salmon and the southern residents were only reported in the area once in the month of June. This illustrates a stark contrast when compared to previous years where J-pod was seen 20-30 times in the same month.
Not only are the whales not returning to the Salish Sea as much as they historically have, the pods are now fragmenting into smaller groups. Prior to 2013, this had never been recorded by the Centre for Whale Research. When a pod came in, everyone who belonged to that family was present. But in 2013, they started to see the pods break up into smaller groups. Experts are hypothesizing that there is no longer enough food to feed the entire pod, so the families have to separate in order to find the nutrition they need to survive. The question remains as to whether the families are finding enough food somewhere else. From their visibly poor body conditions, that seems unlikely.
Killer whales are very social animals who maintain strong family bonds. They thrive on physical contact and vocalize to each other almost constantly.
Figure 3: Graph sourced from the Center for Whale Research. The graph depicts the number of times J-pod was seen in their core summer habitat in the month of June from 2004 to 2016. Click on image to enlarge.
Centre for Whale Research staff are reporting that they are concerned that the breakup of the pods could pose a health risk to the population that likely cannot be measured. They note that long term starvation in humans can cause a variety of emotional disorders, including withdrawal from social activity, decreased sex drive and apathy. These conditions are also often seen in humans when there is a breakdown in community. It is fair to say that similar conditions could occur in orca populations. Not only are the whales starving, their families are fracturing, compounding the emotional and mental health threats that can be onset by both starvation and social structure breakdown.
Not only are the whales starving, their families are fracturing, compounding the emotional and mental health threats that can be onset by both starvation and social structure breakdown.
How Does 2017 look?
Not good.
Sightings records were collected from the Centre for Whale Research, Orca Network and from Victoria whale watching reports. Combined, there have been just 27 sightings of the southern residents in the Salish Sea from April 1st to August 31st. Interesting to note is that most of these sightings were of L-pod, or in most cases just part of L-pod, contrasting to historical trends of J-pod being seen most often in the area. Another important observation has been that only the K-14 matriline has been seen in local waters this summer.
Figure 4: Data collected from sightings reports from Centre for Whale Research, Orca Network and Victoria whale watching reports. A majority of the sightings reports only documented partial pod presence. Created by Rachael Merrett, GSA. Click on image to enlarge.
If the whales are not here, where are they?
We have contacted the Marine Education and Research Society and Stubb’s Island Whale Watching to see if the southern residents have been spotted in northern areas of British Columbia. They have not had any sightings of the southern residents in Johnstone Strait or Queen Charlotte Strait in 2017. We have not been able to find any other reported sightings of the southern residents from anywhere else along the BC coastline. Are they in offshore areas of the Pacific Northwest? Could they be looking for food in Alaska? Nobody at this point has the answers to these questions.
What does this mean?
Photo: Rachael Merrett
Without sightings of the families, it is impossible to track their health and any births or deaths that may have occurred. This is critical information that needs to be gathered so that we know what is happening within the population. For example, we do know that J-22 or Oreo was very pregnant in May of this year. Researchers are anxious to know if her pregnancy was carried to term, and if so, what is the condition of mother and calf.
Another concern is regarding fragmentation of the pods and the complete lack of superpod events where all three pods are present in the same area at the same time. This may lead to a breakdown in community cohesion and overall population familiarity. Southern residents used to regularly gather together in superpods where they would be seen mating, socializing, and foraging with members of all three pods. This no longer happens.
Will the fragmentation of the pods and lack of time spent together affect reproduction? Will the potential breakdown in social structure influence their health and/or mortality rates?
Researchers will not be able to collect and analyze any data on the southern residents if we don’t know where they are.
Another concern is whether or not their absence from the Salish Sea will be permanent as this will affect protection and recovery efforts being implemented by both Canadian and U.S. governments, researchers and NGO’s. If the whales no longer use the Salish Sea as their core summer habitat, where are they spending their summers? If somewhere else, recovery measures will need to be adjusted. The status of chinook salmon populations who spawn in the Fraser River appear to be playing a key role in determining whether the southern residents will continue to be absent from the Salish Sea in the future. If Fraser River chinook stocks are protected and allowed to recover, we will likely see the return of the southern residents to the local waters that we know they have used consistently for decades, especially if we are also reducing the other threats to this population
What can we do?
Photo: Rachael Merrett
We are working to push the government to take meaningful action to protect the resident orcas and we’ll need your help at key times to increase that pressure. Stay informed about new developments pertaining to the southern resident killer whales by joining the Orca Action Team – we’ll keep you updated and let you know when you need to take action. You can also help the whales by donating to our Orcas Can’t Wait Fund– your donations will be matched until the end of summer to double the impact, and help us be there to help the orcas.
You can read more about the threats to the southern residents in our blogs:
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