Fisheries proposes listing local orcas as “threatened”

The National Marine Fisheries Service has announced that it is proposing to list the Southern Resident orcas as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

Public hearings are scheduled for Feb. 28 in Friday Harbor and Feb. 17 in Seattle.

Bob Lohn, head of the service’s Northwest regional office, made the announcement Dec. 16.

“Our recovery efforts are already under way for these killer whales,”Bob Lohn said. “We've had workshops and consulted with experts on development of a conservation plan essentially identical to the recovery plan that an ESA listing would require.”

A draft of the conservation plan is expected to be available for review at the public hearing. The listing could become final a year from now, according to the fisheries service, said Brent Plater, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

The Southern Residents spend several months each year in Puget Sound. Listing them as “threatened” would provide various protections to be outlined in the conservation plan.

The Southern Residents, which now number 86, are considered endangered by Washington State and Canada, according to the Center for Whale Research. That number includes Luna, who strayed from his pod and has been residing in and around Nootka Sound on the west side of Vancouver Island since July 2001.

Orca advocates say the listing will boost the chances of the whales’ population to rebound by requiring a binding recovery plan that will protect the Southern Residents’ habitat and assure that projects which would harm the orcas or their habitat cannot not proceed.

A coalition of conservation groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, petitioned for protection on behalf of the Southern Residents in 2001 following a population drop from 97 in 1996 to 78 in 2001. Orca experts attribute the population decline to pollution, vessel disturbances and a decline in salmon.

According to the Pacific Biodiversity Institute, in Winthrop, the Southern Resident population numbered about 110 in the mid–1960s. Since then, it has experienced declines. 

“Between 1967 and 1972, about 34 Southern Residents were captured live for public display. As a result, this population was numbered at 67 during the July 1973 census,” the institute reported on its Web site.

“The live captures altered the gender and age ratio of the population to create a significant reproductive gap. So, after the population rebounded to a peak population of 83 in 1980, it declined a second time to 74 in 1984.  

The National Marine Fisheries Service listed the Southern Residents as “depleted” in May 2003. The agency had received a petition to list the whales as endangered, but decided in 2002 that listing was not warranted.

The fisheries service’s finding of “depleted” was challenged in court and the court told the agency to reconsider its decision.

Working to restore the killer whale population is the Puget Sound Shared Strategy, a regional coalition aimed at restoring salmon in Puget Sound. Since salmon are one of the killer whales’ main food sources, increasing salmon numbers and quality is a major step toward increasing orca numbers and vigor.

Salmon have been on the federal list of endangered species since 1991.

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