The State of the Orca

News from OrcaRelief.org:

The State of the Orca

By Mark Anderson, Chair, Orca Relief Citizens’ Alliance

The just – completed rule-making process by the National Marine Fisheries Service has left San Juan Islanders in the current situation:

1. No one can deny that our whales have been dying of starvation.
2. No one can deny that Chinook salmon counts matter most, and that the presence of motorized whale watch boats hastens that starvation.
3. No one can deny that these boats temporarily “blind” Orca sonar, used for hunting, even at now-legal distances of up to 200m. away
4. No one can deny that the presence of these boats simultaneously increases their need for food.
5. Perhaps most politically interesting, we now have virtually all non-whalewatch organizations on the same side on these issues, after years of argument and waiting for science to be done. The National Marine Fisheries Service, the Whale Museum, the Friends of the San Juans, and Orca Relief Citizens’ Alliance have all endorsed the new rules, and the reasons behind them; and federal, state and county government are enforcing them.

Yes, whale watch boats are directly responsible for the death of our local whales, and it is time for islanders to take this to heart.

Futhermore: motorized whale watching boats, following the Orca all day every day in the season, even at legal distances, will continue to harm them.

Did this rule process help the whales at all? If I took three videos of boats on the whales from our west-side office before the rules, and now, I have no doubt no one could tell the difference. So, unfortunately, no. The rules remain unenforceable, and enforcement remains so rare (6 visits last year by the state) as to be ineffective.

What Islanders Don’t Know

While the Orca birth rate continues its robust rate, the current headcount could mislead islanders into thinking the whale population is regaining health. Rather, we have lost many prime-age breeding animals, creating a U-shaped population demographic and reducing the genetic health of the whole group. The whales appear to be on a deadly conveyor belt: the young survive, but, simply by getting bigger and needing more fish per day, they die of starvation.

Recently, K-pod had no breeding males; now all the pods seem to be only producing males.

And if anyone needed a real red flag indicating an increasing threat level, the first paper proving inbreeding among Southern Residents has just been published. The Northern resident whales never breed inside their own pods, and ours didn’t either – until now.

There is a solution available: finish the rule-making project by creating a No Go Zone ONLY for Motorized Whale Watch boats, along the west side of San Juan Island. Contrary to the original, this would not apply to kayakers, anglers, commercial fishermen, or private boaters. It would give the whales a very small “buffet table” where they could eat in peace, while the whale watch companies could continue making money outside this zone.

UPDATE [8-8-2011]

Hello fellow Orca Relief friends,

As all of the San Juan Island locals might have noticed in the recent newspapers, we seem to have stirred up the whale watchers this week.  Mark Anderson published a column (see above) about the “State of the Orca” early this week. And, as usual, have already received several defensive letters from the whale watch operators.

Therefore, it is our hope that you all will hear our call for action to help us in posting responses and letters in support of the Orcas.  I have put the links to Mark’s column below, where you can also view the responses from the whale watch operators.

San Juan Journal: https://www.pnwlocalnews.com/sanjuans/jsj/opinion/126777363.html

San Juan Islander: https://www.sanjuanislander.com/columns/guest/orcas-state-of.shtml

Island Guardian: https://www.islandguardian.com/archives/00004000.html