Orcas still in decline

A NOAA study released this week found that Orcas’ limited growth is threatened by a variety of problems including lack of their main food source — Chinook salmon — industrial fishing, noise from boats and pollution. In the decade since the southern-resident killer whale was protected under the Endangered Species Act, scientists are still puzzled about why these whales are not recovering quicker from a big drop in numbers in the 1970s, after many were captured and placed in amusement parks. The most recent census count is 82 members. “Part of what I hoped at the beginning was that it would be mostly one thing that was wrong,” NOAA fisheries expert Brad Hanson told The Seattle Times. “But they all appear to be intertwined.”Mark Anderson, founder and president of Orca Relief Citizens’ Alliance, a non-profit organization aimed at reducing the death rates of killer whales, tells us that this information has been available for some time but no one is understanding or linking these three main causes.  His organization is dedicated to creating a Whale Protection Zone on the west side of San Juan Island where no commercial motorized whale watch boats are allowed so that the southern resident killer whales have a space where they are protected from loud motors. And Orca Relief praised the report on several counts, including its mention of a protection zone as a way to help the orcas’ recovery. (Disclosure: Mark Anderson is related to one of Crosscut's editors.) — J.B.