Southern resident Orcas took a heavy hit last year, losing seven members, including matriarch J-2, Granny. In November, Orca Relief Citizens Alliance, the Center for Biological Diversity and Project Sea Wolf filed a petition with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration creating a Whale Protection Zone along the west side of San Juan Island.

“In order for something like this to work there needs to be community support,” said Lynn Barre, chief of NOAA’s Seattle Branch. On Jan. 13, NOAA announced a public comment period on the petition, lasting 90 days from Jan. 13.

The petition

According to Barre, community support is a major factor NOAA must look at when designing and reviewing proposals such as a protection zone. NOAA received opposition to a No-Go-Zone proposal in 2009 because the economic analysis done for the proposal was incomplete. Since then, NOAA has not been sitting idly by. Barre said they have been looking at the current research, and are waiting for the results of studies on sound levels regarding what whales are hearing, and how that impacts the animals. They are also reexamining the economic analysis of a proposed protection zone.

In 2013, NOAA held a workshop reviewing regulations to see if additional ones would be needed.

The zone differs in size from NOAA’s original proposal from 2009, amounting to a three-fourths mile wide and includes a fourth-mile wide buffer area stretching from Cattle Point to Mitchell Point. A buffer area would make enforcement easier as it would make it obvious when boaters are in the zone, according to co-petitioner Mark Anderson.

Anderson is also the founder of Orca Relief, a nonprofit that has a mission statement to reduce the mortality rate of Southern resident killer whales.

The petition allows for exemptions for fishing vessels, and other boats traveling through the area, although it does require these vessels travel slowly, and that no wake signs would be in put in place. Kayaks and non-motoring sailboats, Anderson said, are fine.

Miyoko Sakashita, ocean program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, NOAA is legally required to respond within a year, and they can either accept or reject the proposal.

“If they make a decision that is contrary to the science, it could be challenged,” Sakashita said.

Science

According to NOAA’s website, there are at least three major threats to the Southern residents; contaminants such as PCB’s, lack of food, and increasing noise and vessel traffic; “Noise and overcrowding from boat traffic, as well as a scarce supply of their preferred food, salmon, pose serious threats to this endangered population. We need to focus efforts and make critical investments within NOAA… to engage vital partners to stabilize and prevent the Southern Resident killer whales extinction. Past research has shown that … the most important threats facing the whales … cannot be addressed without a long term commitment. Recovery of threatened salmon, for example, is a monumental task in itself and is expected to take many years.”

The petition utilizes similar data from NOAA’s own research.

“There is zero doubt in science that vessels impact whales, harmfully,” Anderson said.

Jenny Atkins, director of the Whale Museum, does not question the science either, saying “The science and reasoning behind the petition are sound.” However, she added, the problems are complex and she is not sure the petition addresses all the issue. Atkin also noted that the Whale Museum has proposed a special management area along the west side.

Acoustics

According to Anderson, orcas have evolved to have one of the best acoustic apparatus in the world. In fact, the Navy has been trying to replicate it for decades. The dolphin family, of which orcas are a member, have been able to differentiate not just between objects of different shapes, but between solid and hollow objects, and objects with another object inside it.

“They not only see you, but can see your heart beat,” he said, adding that they essentially see with their ears, and the presence of motorized vehicles essentially blinds them.

“Even at the legal 200-yard distance, one boat can blind a whale,” Anderson said. According to data collected by NOAA, researchers have estimated potential auditory masking from vessels as far away as 400 yards.

“Studies have shown the speed of the vessel has the biggest impact,” said Jeff Friedman, of Maya’s Legacy, and U.S. president of the Pacific Whale Watch Association.

He added that for that reason, the PWWA has voluntarily slowed down especially along the west side, an area Southern residents have been known to utilize to fish. Friedman emphasizes this is not due to any regulation, but something that the commercial whalers have volunteered to do. Friedman does not support the petition, in part he said, “Salmon are in crises, and this does nothing to address that.”

Lack of food

With last year being one of the lowest Chinook runs which is one of the Southern resident primary food sources, (See “Where have all the salmon gone,” published in the Journal July 27, 2016) lack of food is one of the biggest threats the whales are currently facing.

“We must spend 100 percent of our energy getting fish into the mouths of these whales,” Giles said in that article.

Friedman agrees, saying that NOAA has not done enough for salmon recovery and needs to focus its efforts on salmon recovery.

“There is public support now for the removal of the snake river dam,” Friedman says.

Petitioners don’t disagree, but they believe a Whale Protection Zone along the west side would put salmon into the whale’s mouth now by allowing them to forage in peace.

“A protection zone is vital to give these whales adequate uninterrupted space to feed and forage and mate during the critical summer months,” said co-petitioner Michael Kundu, director of Sea-Wolf Project, a nonprofit.

Habitat:

The west side, Anderson said, where the protection zone would be located, is where the fish are, “Ask any fisherman, they will tell you.”

Anderson continued that while the territory the Southern residents use may be large, with the zone only taking up perhaps one percent, “this is their kitchen, they may have plenty of bedrooms, but this is their kitchen.”

With the lack of salmon, according to Giles, they are utilizing that kitchen less and less, simply because there isn’t the fish there once were.

“If we were to begin our studies today, we would think transients were the residents, and the residents were just visiting,” she told the Journal this summer.

With the loss of seven animals in one year, it is clear the Southern residents are in trouble.

“Every single one of these animals whether you can see it or not are in trouble, endangered. They need food, and quieter cleaner water, “ Atkins said. “It’s so easy for us to forget we are playing in their living room. We need to be whale-wise in every way.”

To view the petition in full visit orcarelief.org.

To comment on-line, visit regulations.gov, or mail directly to Lynne Barre at NMFS West Coast Region, 760 Sand Point, WA. NE Seattle 98114.