August 20, 2018 — Southern Resident Killer Whales are endangered and in decline.
Thursday a national environmental group filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration. According to the suit, the National Marine Fisheries Service has failed to protect the winter habit of the Orcas.
“Our killer whales aren’t doing well,” said Sarah Yhlemann, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity who filed the lawsuit.
For 17 days a grieving mother Orca carried her dead calf more than 1,000 miles through the waters of the Salish Sea. An act of grief that environmentalist claim highlights the need to help the troubled Orcas.
“We know that protecting the whales themselves is absolutely important, but protecting their habit is really important too,” said Yhlemann.
The suit says NOAA has failed to act on a 2014 petition that includes expanding habitat protections to the Orcas’ winter foraging and migration areas off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California.
“Right now their full habitat is not protected for the winter and travel down the coast, they don’t have habit protections,” said Yhlemann.
The lawsuit is asking for what the law requires for endangered species: to protect the entire habit of the Southern Resident killers whales.
The animals were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2005, after the center sued to get the status. The following year, the fisheries service designated the inland waters of Washington state as critical habitat. The designation means federal agencies must ensure that activities they pay for, permit or carry out do not harm the habitat.