Saving Seafood

WASHINGTON: Seattle Harbor Expansion Would Push Out Endangered Whales, Conservation Group Says

March 5, 2021 — The Trump administration rushed through a project to expand Seattle Harbor for ultra-large container ships that would further threaten endangered Southern Resident killer whales, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Only 75 Southern Resident killer whales swim the Salish Sea — a number that has increased since three baby whales were born in the relatively quiet waters of the pandemic. Noise from whale watching boats and ships headed to and from ports across the Pacific will increase when pandemic restrictions are lifted.

Added to that is a new worry: the underwater cacophony of ultra-large container ships that would visit Seattle Harbor, in the heart of the whales’ home waters, and the release of hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of toxic material dredged during the harbor project.

The three pods, or family lines, of Southern Residents took a major hit in the late 1960s when aquariums stole 45 Southern Residents from their families, and killed another 14 in the process. Only one of the whales taken during that time survives today: a 53-year-old whale who lives at the Miami Seaquarium. The Seaquarium calls her Lolita, while supporters who want her returned to a protected cove of the Salish Sea call her Tokitae.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Study: Chinook salmon are key to Northwest orcas all year

March 4, 2021 — For more than a decade, Brad Hanson and other researchers have tailed the Pacific Northwest’s endangered killer whales in a hard-sided inflatable boat, leaning over the edge with a standard pool skimmer to collect clues to their diet: bits of orca poop floating on the water, or fish scales sparkling just below the surface.

Their work established years ago that the whales depend heavily on depleted runs of Chinook, the largest and fattiest of Pacific salmon species, when they forage in the summer in the inland waters between Washington state and British Columbia.

But a new paper from Hanson and others at the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center provides the first real look at what the whales eat the rest of the year, when they cruise the outer Pacific Coast — data that reaffirms the central importance of Chinook to the whales and the importance of recovering Chinook populations to save the beloved mammals.

By analyzing the DNA of orca feces as well as salmon scales and other remains after the whales have devoured the fish, the researchers demonstrated that the while the whales sometimes eat other species, including halibut, lingcod and steelhead, they depend most on Chinook. And they consumed the big salmon from a wide range of sources — from those that spawn in California’s Sacramento River all the way to the Taku River in northern British Columbia.

Read the full story at OPB

Nearby Vessels Interrupt Feeding of Southern Resident Killer Whales, Especially Females

January 13, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Boat traffic within 400 yards of endangered Southern Resident killer whales interrupts their foraging, often leading female whales to cease feeding altogether. That is a key finding from a new analysis of data from suction-cup tags that track the whales’ movement underwater.

Previous research observed surface behavior of the killer whales in response to vessels, while the tags allow researchers to discern their behavior during extended dives underwater. This data shows that nearby vessel traffic inhibits their underwater foraging as much or more than what scientists previously documented at the surface. These new results were published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

“We found a bigger effect in females, and that effect was more often that they gave up foraging if vessels encroached on them,” said research scientist Marla Holt at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center. The analysis examined whale behavior over 3 years. It included years before and after the 2011 enactment of federal regulations limiting how close vessels can approach killer whales in Washington’s inland waters.

The outsize effect of vessel traffic on female whales “could have cascading effects on the ability to meet energetic requirements to support reproductive efforts,” the scientists reported. “This is particularly concerning in an endangered population that is in decline.”

Read the full release here

Directly and Indirectly, Humans Contributing to Most Orca Deaths

December 3, 2020 — New research shows that humans are taking a greater toll on killer whale populations than previously believed. Between pollution, overfishing and impacts with vessels — it doesn’t look good for the majestic, endangered creatures.

The most common human-related causes of death include infectious disease, malnutrition, congenital defects induced by chemical pollution, blunt force trauma from boat strikes and ingested fish hooks. These cases represent otherwise preventable deaths that can likely be reduced through further research and effort.

Researchers looked at blubber thickness and body length to determine an orca’s overall body condition. Not surprisingly, mature orcas tended to be healthiest prior to death and most often died from bacterial infections, emaciation and injuries caused by boat strikes, whereas calves were more likely to die from infectious disease, malnutrition or congenital defects and were typically healthy before their deaths. Understanding these interactions with humans is critical to ongoing management and conservation efforts for over 55,000 orcas worldwide.

Lead author Dr. Stephen Raverty from Canada’s Ministry of Agriculture and his team looked at pathology reports for 53 individuals stranded between 2001 and 2017, which revealed human activity to be a significant cause of death for orcas across every age group. The researchers published their findings Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

PFMC Adopts Salmon Measures to Help Southern Resident Killer Whales

November 25, 2020 — The Pacific Fishery Management Council unanimously adopted new ocean salmon fishing regulations last week to help save critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales from extinction. While the birth of two calves this year was welcome news, Southern Residents face an uncertain future with only 74 individuals left and a diet almost entirely comprised of declining salmon populations, especially Chinook salmon, Oceana said in a press release.

Pacific salmon, primarily Chinook salmon, are 99 percent of the diet of Southern Resident killer whales. A single adult Southern Resident typically needs to eat 12 to 20 Chinook salmon every day, and as many as 30 depending on the size and nutrition levels of the fish. Wild salmon populations have been in decline due to a combination of issues, including dams, habitat loss and fishing pressure, Oceana said.

Read the full story at Seafood News

WASHINGTON: Navy, state clash over increased testing that could harm whales, marine life

September 2, 2020 — Navy and state leaders are at odds over a proposed rule for military testing in Puget Sound and coastal waters of Washington that allows the increased potential to harass and harm marine life, including the endangered and fragile Southern Resident orca population.

The Navy, in seeking approval from the National Marine Fisheries Service, is seeking to conduct testing and training involving a number of activities — firing torpedoes and projectiles, detonating bombs up to 1,000 pounds, using underwater sonar, piloting undersea drones and more. A proposed new rule would allow for the potential “take” — a term meaning “to harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal” — of Southern Resident orcas from twice a year to up to 51 times, though federal officials say no conditions that could injure one of the 73 known remaining southern residents would be allowed.

On Friday, the state’s Department of Ecology pushed back with demands to constrict the Navy’s testing, including increasing the whale buffer zones to at least 1,000 yards and ceasing sonar exercises when orcas are spotted. The agency also asked for the Navy to use real-time whale alert systems like those used by the Washington State Ferries.

Read the full story at the Kitsap Sun

Correction: Ad Hoc Southern Resident Killer Whale Workgroup to Meet September 29-30, 2020

August 24, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Ad Hoc Southern Resident Killer Whale Workgroup will hold an online meeting, which is open to the public.  The meeting will be held Tuesday, September 29 through Wednesday, September 30, 2020, starting at 9:00 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) and ending at 5:00 p.m. daily, or until business for the day is complete.

Please see the September 29-30, 2020 Ad Hoc Southern Resident Killer Whale Workgroup meeting notice on the Pacific Council’s website for details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Ms. Robin Ehlke at 503-820-2410; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

Give Pregnant Killer Whales Space to Forage

August 14, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

With news of multiple pregnancies among the endangered Southern Resident killer whales, agencies and partners are calling for boaters to steer clear of the whales. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries, whale watch leaders, and Soundwatch are asking boaters to give the whales extra space on the water at this critical time.

”The whales, for the first time in a couple years, are very, very present in Puget Sound; and unfortunately we’re having a lot of people get too close to orcas within these regulated boundaries,” said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police Captain Alan Myers. “That bubble of protection is extremely important in order to keep boaters either intentionally or unintentionally from interfering with these animals while they feed, forage, and move about in Washington’s waters.”

A photogrammetry team from SR3 and Southall Environmental Associates last month documented pregnancies in all three Southern Resident pods. While this is promising news, research has shown that many Southern Resident pregnancies fail or the calves do not survive beyond their first year.

The lack of sufficient Chinook salmon prey is a key issue for the whale population. Another concern is the sound from vessel traffic, which can interrupt echolocation clicks the whales use to hunt the salmon. In the presence of vessel traffic, the whales have been observed by researchers spending less time foraging and more time traveling. Research has also found that the speed of vessels, more so than their size, is the biggest factor in determining how much noise they produce. Slowing down is one of the best ways to allow pregnant females to find the prey they need.

Read the full release here

Endangered orcas at risk from U.S. Navy, activists warn

August 3, 2020 — In the Pacific Northwest, an endangered community of killer whales has been on the decline for years due to a variety of factors, all related to human activity. Now, advocacy groups are warning of another looming threat which could further weaken the killer whale population: the U.S. Navy.

The Southern Resident killer whales are a small, close knit community of animals — more accurately known as orcas, the largest species of dolphins — which live primarily along the coast of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. When they were listed as endangered in 2005, there were 88 Southern Resident orcas — but now, due to declines in their favorite food, Chinook salmon, as well as other manmade threats like toxins, shipping traffic and warming waters due to climate change, their numbers have dwindled to 72.

That’s why a recent request from the U.S. Navy seeking authorization for 51 “takes” of killer whales in the region each year for the next seven years alarmed many environmental groups.

Read the full story at CBS News

Southern Resident Killer Whale Workgroup online meeting August 3-4, 2020

July 8, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council)  Ad Hoc Southern Resident Killer Whale Workgroup (Workgroup) will meet online, and this meeting will be open to the public.  The online meeting will be held Monday, August 3 through Tuesday, August 4, 2020.   The meeting will be held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on August 3.  The meeting will continue August 4 at 9 a.m. (PDT) and will end at 5 p.m.  The meeting times are an estimate; and will adjourn when business for the day is complete.

Please see the SRKW Workgroup online meeting notice on the Council’s website for the purpose of the meeting and participation details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Robin Ehlke at 503-820-2410; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.