Killer whales and dams
November 28th, 2007 by adminThe Christian Science Monitor today tackled the controversy over whether the Snake River dams should be removed for the benefit of killer whales as well as salmon.
Last week, six killer whale researchers took a stand against the dams, saying the dams means loss of salmon — and loss of salmon could mean the loss of the killer whales that frequent Puget Sound. See my story, which resulted in a bunch of reader comments.
The names are well known among those who follow killer whale research: Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research; Robin Baird of Cascadia Research; David Bain of Friday Harbor Labs; Rich Osborne of The Whale Museum; Val Veirs of Colorado College and president of The Whale Museum; and Dr. Pete Schroeder, a marine mammal veterinarian in Sequim.
“We cannot hope to restore the killer whale population without also restoring the abundant salmon upon which these whales have depended for thousands of years,” the six stated in a letter to Bob Lohn, regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries.
We also posted a letter to the editor of the Kitsap Sun in which the writer supports dam removal. The letter has stirred up a bunch of comments. Feel free to comment at the bottom of that letter or bring the conversation over to this blog.
The dams will be a hot political and legal topic for a long time.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
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