Photos and descriptions of more than 120 Washington state parks
are part of the first-ever “Washington State Parks Guide” now on
sale now at many state parks as well as online.
The 364-page guide, which costs $6 (online $13.80), describes
which parks offer popular activities, such as hiking, biking and
boating, and also activities that fewer people relish, such as
paragliding, geocaching and metal detecting, according to a
news
release about the guide.
The guide is published by the Washington State Parks and
Recreation Commission.
Commercial operators who take visitors on whale-watching cruises
in the Salish Sea have vowed to follow new, more restrictive
guidelines to reduce noise and disturbance around the endangered
Southern Resident Killer Whales.
The new
guidelines, adopted by the Pacific Whale Watch Association, go
beyond state and federal regulations and even beyond the voluntary
“Be Whale Wise”
guidelines promoted by state and federal agencies and many
whale advocacy groups. For the first time, the commercial
guidelines include time limits for watching any group of
whales.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government has announced that it will
restrict fishing for chinook salmon — the killer whales’ primary
prey — to help save the whales from extinction. The goal is to
reduce fishery removals of 25 to 35 percent, but details have yet
to be released. More about that in a moment.
The new whale-watch guidelines are based largely on recent
research into much how much noise reaches killer whales when
multiple boats are in the vicinity, said Jeff Friedman, president
of the PWWA.
Jeff noted that the guidelines have been endorsed by every
commercial whale-watch operator who regularly takes people out to
see whales. Every whale-watch boat captain must pass a test to
certify personal knowledge of the guidelines, which were adopted in
March, he added.
Jeff said his organization would like all boaters to understand
and follow the guidelines. Going further, he hopes the “Be Whale
Wise” guidelines and its website can be updated as well.
“One of the most important things in there — and we have been
doing this for some time — is the slow speed around the whales,” he
said. “That minimizes the sound coming from our vessels.”
He explained that new studies show that boats moving at high
speed produce far more engine noise than boats moving slowly. Lower
underwater sound levels might help the whales communicate better
and improve their ability to locate fish through echolocation.
The new guidelines extend the go-slow zone around whales from
0.25 mile to 1 kilometer (0.62 mile). In this zone, boats should
never go faster than 7 knots.
Time limits are a new provision. No vessel should ever be around
a group of whales more than an hour, according to the guidelines,
or 30 minutes when more than 10 commercial whale-watch boats are
nearby.
Years ago, the Southern Resident orcas were the only show in
town, Jeff said. Now there may be transient orcas, humpback whales
and gray whales at various times, along with other wildlife. That
offers a variety of viewing opportunities. Unfortunately, he added,
it is now rare to see a Southern Resident, which means they are not
finding food in their traditional areas.
In fact, he noted, so far this month the whales have not been
seen in areas around the San Juan Islands. If we go through the
month of May without a single Southern Resident sighting, it will
be the first year ever that whales were not seen in May — going
back to at least the 1970s, when researchers started keeping
records.
Communication, coordination and respect for other whale-watch
boats is emphasized in the new guidelines. For example, when
approaching an area where whales are being watched, boat operators
should move to the outside of vessels in the area and adopt a
course of travel parallel to that of the whales.
The distance from all killer whales remains 200 yards on the
U.S. side of the border, consistent with state and federal
regulations. The distance is 100 yards from other whales. In
Canada, the prescribed distance is 200 meters from the Southern
Residents and 100 meters from other whales. In all cases,
additional distances should be added if warranted by the whales’
behavior, according to the guidelines.
Special provisions are imposed near the Race Rocks Marine
Protected Area and the west side of San Juan Island. The Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife recently asked all boaters —
including sport fishers — to voluntarily stay at least one-fourth
mile off the west side of San Juan Island and a half-mile from Lime
Kiln Lighthouse. (See
Water Ways, May 9.) That distance to shore has been in the
guidelines, although the no-go area was extended south along the
shoreline.
As always, sonar, depth sounders and fish finders should be shut
off when a vessel is in the vicinity of whales, according to the
guidelines, but new research suggests that this issue should be
emphasized more than ever, Jeff said.
He said some of the guidelines should be incorporated into
regulations or state law, as proposed by Sen. Kevin Ranker’s Orca
Protection Act,. The proposed legislation underwent multiple lives
during the last legislative session but failed to make it into law,
as I described in
Water Ways, Feb. 23. Now, potential legal changes are under
consideration by the governor’s
Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force.
As for the Canada’s upcoming fishing restrictions, partial
closures are being proposed in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Gulf
Islands and areas near the mouth of the Fraser River. Additional
measures along the coast of British Columbia may include harvest
limits, size limits and size restrictions as well as area closures,
according to a
news release issued by the Department of Fisheries and
Oceans.
In announcing the restrictions, Minister of Fisheries Dominic
LeBlanc, made this statement:
“Southern Resident Killer Whales need our help in order to
survive and recover. Together with my colleague, the Minister of
Environment and Climate Change, we have determined that the species
faces an imminent threat to its survival and recovery, and we need
to keep taking concrete action.
“Today I am pleased to announce new fishery management measures
to increase prey availability and reduce disturbances to these
whales and we continue to work hard on additional actions to be put
in place soon.”
In a
separate announcement, the government said it would provide
$9.5 million for eight projects to restore habitat for chinook
salmon to help Southern Resident killer whales. The funding is part
of a $1.5-billion effort to protect Canada’s coasts and waterways
called the Oceans
Protection Plan.
When Bremerton-based aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis left
Sinclair Inlet two weeks ago, a Navy sailor captured the movement
with a series of photos turned into a video. See first video.
The Stennis, a nuclear-powered supercarrier in the Nimitz Class,
remains at sea, where the crew is undergoing training in flight
operations, damage control, firefighting, seamanship, medicine and
other crucial functions.
The carrier is part of Carrier Strike Group 3, which is
scheduled for deployment later this year. Details have not yet been
released. See Navy news
release by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Charles D.
Gaddis IV and
Kitsap Sun story by reporter Julianne Stanford.
The time-lapse video was posted on the Stennis Facebook page,
where it attracted about 120 comments from friends, relatives and
community members. The Facebook page also includes photos taken
during the training. Here are a few of the comments written to the
sailors from folks back home:
“Thanks for the time-lapse photos, and thank each and everyone
for your service.”
“My heart is soaring with pride…God speed sailors….and my
special sailor love you with all my life.”
“A lot of love for our children on this and all
deployments….”
“Fair winds to my son and all those aboard this mighty ship!
May you return safely soon. You are loved and missed!”
“Be safe and lots of love to my nephew on CVN 74!!! I have
great respect for all the men and women in our armed services past
and present.”
“Fair winds and following seas. Bless all of you on journey.
Thank you all for your service!”
The Stennis time-lapse reminded me of another stunningly
beautiful video covering 30 days on a mega-container ship. Jeff HK,
who describes himself on YouTube as “a sailor with a passion for
photo/videography and drones,” mounted a camera on the ship and
created the video from 80,000 still photos.
The ship and its crew went through all sorts of weather,
experiencing rain and sunshine, sunrises and sunsets and lots of
stars on clear nights. At other times, the clouds created a show of
their own. The route included the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian
Ocean, Colombo, Malacca Strait, Singapore, South China Sea and Hong
Kong.
Captions on the video help tell the story. One commenter who
enjoyed the video said when it was over he felt like he had been on
a trip.
The video, which also captured loading and off-loading
activities, has been viewed 5.6 million times since its release in
September.
The proposed Orca Protection Act, which was declared dead last
week in the Washington State Senate, has sprung back to life with
the addition of a budget provision that offers a new chance of
passage.
Photo: Capt. Jim Maya,
2013
The newly resuscitated bill, approved by the Senate Ways and
Means Committee, is nearly identical to the original bill, which
includes special protections for the endangered Southern Resident
killer whales. If approved by both houses, the legislation would
impose new restrictions on boaters and drone pilots, increase
on-water patrols by state law-enforcement officers and support
studies regarding what people can do to save the whales.
The original legislation died on Feb. 14 when the Senate failed
to approve it before a deadline passed for bills that had no budget
impact, as I described in
Water Ways last Saturday. The bill was revived this week when
its sponsor, Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, used a procedural
maneuver to add a new budget provision.
Specifically, Ranker proposed a $5 increase in the cost of
special
vehicle license plates that depict endangered species,
including orcas. The extra money would be used by the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife for marine patrols and other
orca-related activities.
As a result of Ranker’s maneuver, the original bill, SB
6268, will get a new bill number, SB
5886, which is a bill originally submitted by Ranker in March
2017 with no text. A wholesale amendment on Thursday planted the
text of the Orca Protection Act into SB 5886, which still carries
the title “Relating to natural resources.”
Dave Pringle, Democratic policy analyst who works closely with
Ranker, told me that the senator heard support for the maneuver
from fellow legislators who wanted a chance to vote on the bill.
Ranker expects it to pass the Senate with strong support from
fellow Democrats as well as a number of Republicans. Action on the
Senate floor could come next week, when the bill would move on to
the House.
The bill describes the 76 Southern Resident orcas as “critically
endangered” with a population falling to a 36-year low. The whales
are important to the ecosystem and to the culture of Washington
tribes. The Southern Residents also provide the foundation of a
$60-million tourist industry, according to the bill.
The legislation calls for at least 100 law-enforcement patrols
during whale-watching season. Remotely controlled aircraft, known
as drones, would not be allowed to come within 200 yards of any
Southern Resident orca — which is the same limitation for vessels
under existing law. The bill also would require vessels to slow to
7 knots within 400 yards of a whale. Current law has no speed
limit.
The revised bill adds an exception from the requirements for
distance and speed when vessel operators cannot tell that they are
too close to the whales because of fog, rain or other weather
conditions.
The bill also would require the Department of Fish and Wildlife
to make recommendations about what further actions could be taken
by the Legislature and state agencies to help restore the orca
population. It also calls for meetings and collaborations with
wildlife officials in British Columbia to discuss protecting and
restoring the orcas.
State legislation that would increase protection for Puget
Sound’s killer whales died this week amidst confusing action on the
Senate floor.
Now, orca advocates are pushing a narrower bill approved by the
House to limit remote-controlled aircraft around whales, while they
also hope for a $3-million budget appropriation to support other
orca protection measures.
J pod, one of the three
Southern Resident killer whale groups, has recently spent time in
the San Juan Islands.
Photo: Dave Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research, taken under
federal permits: NMFS:15569-01, DFO SARA: 388.
Whether people should be allowed to fly a drone around the
endangered Southern Resident orcas seems to be the issue stirring
up the most attention in the Legislature — although it is a small
part of the overall effort.
Current law prohibits a “vessel or other object” from
approaching the Southern Residents closer than 200 yards. Using
that language, state fisheries enforcement officers have issued at
least two citations to people flying their drones over orcas in the
San Juan Islands, according to Sgt. Russ Mullins of Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife.
In one case filed in 2015, a Mercer Island photographer appealed
the citation, saying the law does not apply to drones. The
prosecutor in San Juan County eventually dropped the case while
requesting a legal clarification from the state Attorney General’s
Office.
The
opinion from the AG’s Office says the 200-yard limitation for
“other objects” should apply to drones flying over the killer
whales. The final word, however, would need to come from a judge in
a state court.
To eliminate any confusion, Rep. Kristine Lytton, D-Anacortes,
last year introduced a bill that would prohibit “unmanned aerial
systems” from approaching orcas closer than 200 yards in any
direction. The one exception would be if the drone inadvertently
flies over the whales while traveling to an unrelated destination.
See info
for HB 1031.
“My intention is to keep drones away from an icon of our state
and to prevent the almost harassment, as some people in my district
feel, of our orca whales,” Rep. Lytton testified after submitting
her bill.
The concern is not so much about one or two drones, although any
could crash and harm a whale, Sgt. Mullins told me. But if the
rules do not keep drones away from the whales, it will be only a
matter of time before lots and lots of whale watchers bring their
drones out to photograph the orcas up close while watching from a
boat.
“There is already enough drama and confusion out there,” he
said. “We don’t need someone driving his boat as well as his drone
around these whales.”
Some lawmakers, including Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon, said
they would prefer to broaden the legislation to keep drones from
operating around any threatened and endangered species. But no
changes have been made so far, perhaps because the specific law
being revised is focused entirely on the protection of killer
whales.
The bill to protect orcas from drones passed the House last week
on a vote of 67 to 31, with all Democrats in support of the
legislation along with about a third of the House Republicans.
In the Senate, Democrats decided to take a broader approach to
the issue of orca protection. Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island,
introduced a bill to complement Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposed orca
protection and restoration initiative.
The legislation, SB
6268, would more than double the number of marine patrols
around the orcas, essentially protecting the animals from
aggressive boaters and drone operators anytime the whales are in
Puget Sound. Studies have shown that the mere presence of patrol
boats leads to greater compliance with the rules, which are
designed to allow the whales to find food more easily and to engage
in more normal social interactions. The patrols also serve to
educate boaters about how to act around the whales.
The cost for the nearly full-time patrols is estimated at about
$475,000 per year. If the patrols help save the whales from
extinction, it would allow a continuation of the
multi-million-dollar tourism industry, not to mention the
ecological importance of orcas and the joy that people experience
when seeing whales.
Other provisions of the bill would require boaters to slow down
to 7 knots anytime they come within 400 yards of a Southern
Resident orca. Also included are proposed studies to see how
human-generated noise affects the orcas, along with at least one
meeting to better coordinate protection and recovery strategies
between Washington state and British Columbia in Canada.
The Senate bill appeared to be sailing through the Legislature
until Wednesday — the last day to approve bills that originated in
the Senate. Democrats were anxious about approving two bills before
the end of the day — one dealing with student debt and the other
with basic education funding. They thought the so-called Orca
Protection Act would be approved with barely a bump in the
road.
The first amendment offered to the orca bill was the “ominously
numbered amendment 666,” as Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib dubbed it while
calling on the amendment’s author, Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside.
The hostile amendment would remove any prohibition against using
drones around killer whales.
“The orcas are a really a big tourism attraction in the Puget
Sound,” Honeyford told the chamber. “This would allow those
tourists who have unmanned aircraft or drones or whatever you want
to call them to be able to fly them. They are electric, and they
are quiet, and they can take pictures. I believe it would be a
great increase in tourism.”
With an eye toward the clock, the Democrats decided not to fight
the amendment. They knew that the House bill was coming later to
deal with drones, and they apparently hoped to get quick approval
of the Orca Protection Act. After all, everyone was still speaking
in favor of it.
As you can see in the video above, the Democrats were talking
fast. But Republicans along with Sen. Tim Sheldon, a right-leaning
Democrat from Hoodsport, appeared to be taking their time.
Democrats finally gave up and pulled the bill, essentially killing
it for this year.
The original bill to limit drones around the orcas, which
originated in the House, is still alive after House passage. It is
scheduled to be heard on Feb. 20 by the Senate Committee on Energy,
Environment & Technology.
Some aspects of the Senate bill, such as the extra patrols
around the orcas, could be implemented through the budget,
according to Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, who chairs
the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
The House bill is titled, “Concerning the use of unmanned aerial
systems near certain protected marine species.” That title does not
leave much leeway to resuscitate the Senate bill by heavily
amending the House bill, Sen. Rolfes told me.
Still, other efforts to protect the orcas could be accomplished
with legislative funding of Gov. Inslee’s Southern Resident killer
whale recovery program. He is seeking $3 million from the general
fund for the next two years.
The governor’s proposal goes well beyond the idea of extra
patrols around the whales. Included is increased hatchery
production of chinook salmon, the orcas’ primary food; restoration
of chinook salmon habitat in streams and estuaries; and steps to
reduce seal and sea lion predation on chinook, which are also on
the Endangered Species List.
Inslee’s budget proposal also calls for developing oil spill
plans to help the orcas in an emergency, since many experts believe
that an oil spill could drive the whales to extinction faster than
any other problem they face.
“Funding orca recovery is an urgent issue that cannot wait
another legislative session,” said Mindy Roberts, director of
People for Puget Sound, a division of Washington Environmental
Council. “Our region knows all too well the pressures the orcas
face. They are starving because they don’t have enough salmon to
feed on; toxics in their bodies are released when they go hungry;
and vessels are interfering with their abilities to feed and
communicate.”
As she told me in an email, “We will be looking for ways to
provide emergency funding for short-term solutions identified in
the bills that died and in the governor’s budget proposal.”
If oil companies were secretly interested in drilling off the
Washington coast — which is doubtful — then I suspect that state
and tribal officials scared them off yesterday.
It’s one thing for an oil company to sign a lease with the
federal government. It’s quite another thing to go up against other
sovereign governments determined to use every means to make the
venture unprofitable.
Participants in press
conference, left to right: Attorney General Bob Ferguson; Gus
Gates, Surfrider Foundation; Gina James, Quinault Nation; Larry
Thevik, Dungeness Crab Fisherman’s Association; Gov. Jay Inslee;
Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz; Ocean Shores Mayor
Crystal Dingler; and Chad Bowechop, Makah Tribe. (Click to
enlarge)
Photo: Governor’s Office
In a press conference yesterday, Gov. Jay Inslee said the
Legislature could pass laws that establish new taxes or limit the
use of port facilities needed to service oil rigs.
“We could set up our own safety standards, for instance, that
frankly the industry may not be able to meet,” Inslee said. “So,
yes, we have multiple ways. Counties and cities would also have
jurisdiction.
“What I’m saying is that when you have a policy from a president
that is uniformly reviled in the state of Washington both by
Republicans and Democrats, there are so many ways that we have to
stop this — and we’re going to use all of them.”
The entire press conference is shown in the first video
below.
In a
two-page letter to Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, Inslee
wrote, “I urge you in no uncertain terms to respect our local
voices, our state’s laws, and our hard-working families by removing
Washington’s coasts from any subsequent plan your department may
propose to expand oil and gas leasing in this country.”
As Inslee prepared to take another question at the press
conference, Public Lands Commissioner Hillary Franz, who oversees
the state’s forests and aquatic lands, quickly wedged up to the
microphone. She pointed out that Washington state has the authority
to lease — or not — much of the deep-water areas in Puget Sound and
along the coast, including areas used by local ports. The state
would have a say over almost any infrastructure the industry might
need to develop along the shore, she said.
In addition, the state has ownership over vast shellfish
resources, Franz noted, and so state officials would have a clear
interest to protect against any damage that might result.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson said if the leasing plan goes
through, it would be challenged in court on many grounds. Just one
example of a legal violation, he said, is the off-handed way that
the Trump administration exempted the state of Florida from the
leasing plan.
“It was completely arbitrary,” Ferguson said at the press
conference. “It’s a classic example of how this administration
rolls something out; they haven’t thought it through; and they take
an action that we think will help make our case against it.”
Ferguson laid out his legal, moral and practical arguments
against offshore drilling in a long
five-page letter, which included this comment: “The proposal to
open the Pacific Region Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas
leasing is unlawful, unsafe and harmful to the economy and natural
beauty of Washington’s coastline. As Attorney General, my job is to
enforce the law and protect the people, natural resources and
environment of my state, and I will use every tool at my disposal
to do so.”
Chad Bowechop, policy adviser and member of the Makah Tribe,
explained that tribes have legal rights under the treaties to
protect the environment in their native lands. He noted that the
press conference was being held in the very room where legislation
was signed to dispatch a rescue tug at Neah Bay. The bill was the
result of oil spills that had damaged the natural and cultural
resources of the area.
“We’re very proud of our working relationship with the state of
Washington Department of Ecology Spills Program and with the United
States Coast Guard,” he said. “Our basis of objection to this issue
is based on our cultural and spiritual values. Our spiritual values
hold the environment and the ocean resources in spiritual
reverence.”
Drilling, he continued, would be in conflict with the tribe’s
cultural and spiritual values. As a legal trustee of the ocean’s
natural resources, the tribe “will pledge to work closely with the
other resource trustees,” meaning the state and federal governments
to prevent offshore oil drilling.
Early today, Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell appeared on the
Senate floor to protest the oil-drilling proposal. She talked about
the natural resource jobs that would be threatened by drilling
activities. Check out the second video.
Now that Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has asked the Trump
administration to dial back the offshore drilling proposal in his
state, all the West Coast governors stand in opposition to the
drilling plan. In a
press release, Walker said he supports offshore drilling, but
he wants Zinke to focus on the Chukchi and Beaufort seas along with
Cook Inlet.
“I support removal of potential sales in all other Alaska waters
for the 2019 to 2024 program,” he said, “and I will encourage the
Interior Department to include the longstanding exclusions for the
Kaktovik Whaling Area, Barrow Whaling Area, and the 25-mile coastal
buffer in upcoming official state comments on the program.”
Alaska’s congressional delegation, all Republicans, previously
made the same request in a
letter to Zinke. The members are Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan
Sullivan and Rep. Don Young.
Except for three U.S. representatives, Washington’s and Oregon’s
entire congressional delegations — four senators and 12
representatives — signed a
joint letter to Zinke asking that both states be excluded from
further leasing plans.
“The states of Washington and Oregon have made clear through
local, state, and federal action, as well as extensive public
comment, that oil and gas lease sales off the Pacific Coast are not
in the best interest of our economies or environment,” the letter
says. “The Department of the Interior’s proposal to consider
drilling off the states we represent, absent stakeholder support
and directly contradicting economic and environmental factors of
the region, is a waste of time, government resources, and taxpayer
dollars.”
The only Washington-Oregon lawmakers not signing the letter are
Reps. Dan Newhouse and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, both Republicans
representing nearly all of Eastern Washington, and Rep. Greg
Walden, a Republican representing Eastern Oregon.
Octopuses are among the coolest creatures on Earth. Not only are
they dexterous, with an amazing ability to grasp and manipulate
objects, they also seem to know what they are doing.
In tests, octopuses have proven that they can solve puzzles, and
they certainly have some sort of memory. They can tell people
apart, even if dressed in the same uniform. This may be surprising,
especially since octopuses don’t really have a brain like that of
humans and other vertebrates (animals with a backbone).
Not having a backbone — or any bones for that matter — allows
octopuses to escape from places where much smaller invertebrates
would get stuck. Check out the first video on this page, a popular
clip taken by Chance Miller, an Alaskan fishing and tour guide for
Miller’s
Landing near Seward.
Chance tells his skeptical passengers that the large octopus
slithering around his deck would escape out a tiny drain hole, that
is if and when the creature decides to go.
No way, says one man heard on the video. “That’s like trying to
get my wife in her wedding dress; it ain’t gonna happen.” But, of
course, it did.
As for intelligence, philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith says it is
not so much a question of which animals among all the species are
smarter in an formalistic sense. It’s about which animal best uses
its intelligence to solve problems that relate to survival and
success in other ways. The octopus is thus worthy of attention.
Mammals and birds have long been regarded as the smartest
animals on Earth, but that may reveal a bias based on our similar
patterns of thinking. After all, mammals and birds are closely
related to us in an evolutionary sense, compared to all the
invertebrates in the world.
Looking back in time, it is difficult to come up with a common
ancestor to both humans and octopuses, Godfrey-Smith said. “It was
probably an animal about the size of a leach or flatworm with
neurons numbering perhaps in the thousands, but not more than
that.” Check out the fascinating article in
Quartz magazine by Olivia Goldhill.
This line of reasoning suggests that intelligence evolved on
Earth in two very different ways. Studying the octopus could be the
closest encounter that humans have with an alien creature,
according to Godfrey-Smith. I may never think of an octopus quite
the same way again.
Other interesting findings about octopuses are revealed in a
2009 Scientific
American article, in which writer Brendan Borrell interviews
Jennifer Mather, a comparative psychologist at the University of
Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.
The second video on this page shows an octopus solving a
real-world problem of grabbing a meal by taking advantage of a
human, while the third video is a 43-minute Planet Earth
documentary released last summer about the intelligence and alien
nature of the octopus.
I leave you at the end with a brief clip from the Cirque du
Soleil performance of “Octopus’ Garden” by the Beatles.
The Japanese government is considering the replacement of the
“mother ship” in its fleet of whaling vessels, as part of a
potential expansion of whaling in the Antarctic.
The newspaper
Japan Times today received confirmation that the Japanese
Fishing Agency has requested the equivalent of $910,000 to study
the future of commercial whaling. If approved, the study would
consider ideas for replacing the 30-year-old Nisshin Maru, best
known as the factory ship used for processing whale meat. Japanese
officials collect certain information about the whales and call it
scientific research.
Anti-whaling activists, including Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society, reacted harshly to the news, saying the study
is a sign that the Japanese government not only intends to keep
slaughtering whales but may be on the verge of expanding commercial
operations.
“I will say, that if this replacement floating slaughter house —
this Cetacean Death Star — is built and if it returns to the
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with an increased quota, it will be
strongly, passionately and aggressively opposed,” Watson wrote in a
Facebook
post. “The Whale Wars is not over.”
After problems with finding and pursuing the Japanese whalers
last year, Sea Shepherd did not send any ships into battle this
year. It was the first time in 12 years that Sea Shepherd has
failed to confront the whalers in the Southern Ocean — except for
2014 when the Japanese whalers called off the hunt.
“What we discovered,” Watson said in a
news release last August, “is that Japan is now employing
military surveillance to watch Sea Shepherd ship movements in real
time by satellite, and if they know where our ships are at any
given moment, they can easily avoid us…. We cannot compete with
their military-grade technology.”
Watson said he has also heard that the Japanese military may be
sent to protect the whalers if Sea Shepherd tries to stop them.
Sea Shepherd is not giving up its efforts to protect the whales
in the Southern Ocean, Watson stressed. Instead, the organization
will develop new tactics while calling on the Australian government
to do more to protect the whales.
In December, countries in the European Union and 12 other
nations expressed their opposition to the whaling taking place in
the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, a protected area established by
the International Whaling Commission. Australia and New Zealand,
but not the United States, are among the signatories.
The
“Joint statement against whaling” points out that the
International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that the Japanese
whaling did not meet the basic requirements for scientific studies.
Legitimate research is one of the few exemptions that allow the
killing of whales under the International Convention for the
Regulation of Whaling.
The Japanese called off the whaling the following summer in
Antarctica but started it up again the next year under a new
whaling plan submitted to the International Whaling Commission. The
Japanese government said it would never again place itself under
the jurisdiction of the international court.
The IWC has since questioned the new whaling plans and has
adopted two resolutions calling on the Japanese to halt whaling
until the new scientific plan can be reviewed by the Scientific
Committee of the IWC. Japan objected to the process on procedural
grounds in a
position statement and ignored the international posture,
including the latest
IWC resolution (16-2) in 2016.
Plans to replace or overhaul the Nisshin Maru were first floated
in 2005, according to sources quoted in Japan News.
Nothing happened, however, until this year when the idea was
resurrected by pro-whaling lawmakers in Japan.
The ship was built in 1987 as a trawler and converted to a whale
processor in 1991. Whales harpooned by smaller vessels can be
pulled up a gangway to the deck for slaughter. Up to 1,200 tons of
meat can be stored in a freezer below decks, according to the
newspaper.
“Even though the ship has been painted over, rust that can’t be
hidden stands out,” said an observer quoted in Japan News. “It is
old, aged nearly 100 in human years.”
Some reports said Japanese officials want a ship that could
operate quicker on the high seas to evade Sea Shepherd’s aggressive
actions, which they consider to be terrorism.
About 100 people were said to be on board the Nisshin Maru in
November when the ship departed from Japan’s Innoshima island,
Hiroshima Prefecture, heading for the Southern Ocean. The goal is
to hunt up to 333 minke whales, a quota established by the Japanese
government with no outside approval.
Camille Quindica, an eighth-grader from Kapolei Middle School in
Hawaii, captured the spirit of the maritime industry in a poster
that received top honors in an art contest with the theme
“Connecting Ships, Ports and People.”
Artwork by Camille Quindica,
eighth grade, grand prize winner, “Connecting Ships, Ports &
People” Maritime Art Contest
The annual art contest is sponsored by North American Marine
Environment Protection Association along with the U.S. Coast Guard
and the Inter-American Committee on Ports of the Organization of
the American States.
Camille’s drawing took the grand prize in the category for
grades 6-12. She was presented with a certificate, $100 and other
items by Coast Guard officials who visited her school two weeks
ago.
“We have winners from overseas and all over, and we’ve been
quite fortunate here in Hawaii,” said Cmdr. Ulysses Mullins, deputy
sector commander for Coast Guard Sector Honolulu. “We’ve had two
back-to-back winners and we’ve had the opportunity to present the
winners in person.” (See story and photo in
“Coast Guard News.”)
Artwork by Nelson Valencia,
third grade, Grand Prize Winner, “Connecting Ships, Ports &
People” Maritime Art Contest
Nelson Valencia, a third-grader at Atahualpa school in Ibarra,
Imbabura, Ecuador, was the winner of the grand prize in the K-5 age
group. Five other finalists were named for each of the two
categories. To view all the winning posters, visit the
NAMEPA website.
The winning posters have been compiled into a 2018 calendar.
Students were asked to submit an original poster that creatively
depicts the connections among ships, ports and people and how these
connections affect everyday lives. The contest was open to students
in grades K-12 throughout North America, Central America, South
America, and the Caribbean.
More than 500 entries were received, according to a
news release about the contest that lists all the winners.
Artwork by Wilson Cajas, second
grade, finalist, “Connecting Ships, Ports & People” Maritime
Art Contest
The theme for this year’s contest is “Better Shipping for a
Better Future.” Submissions will be accepted between Jan. 22 and
March 30. Details will soon be available on the NAMEPA website.
NAMEPA, led by the maritime
industry, promotes the preservation of the marine environment
through best operating practices and by educating seafarers,
students and the public about the need to protect natural
resources. A webpage, NAMEPA
Junior, provides a variety of activities for children.
The U.S. Coast Guard is dedicated to protecting U.S. coastal
areas along with maritime and environmental interests throughout
the world.
The Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) of the Organization
of American States (OAS) brings together the National Port
Authorities of all 35 sovereign nations of the Americas. The
organization promotes sound and sustainable policies for the
maritime industry.
Southern Resident killer whales, cherished by many Puget Sound
residents, are on a course headed for extinction, and they could
enter a death spiral in the not-so-distant future.
It is time that people face this harsh reality, Ken Balcomb told
me, as we discussed the latest death among the three pods of orcas.
A 2-year-old male orca designated J-52 and known as Sonic died
tragically about two weeks ago.
Two-year-old J-52, known as
Sonic, swims with his mother J-36, or Alki, on Sept. 15. This may
have been the last day Sonic was seen alive.
Photo: Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale
Research
The young orca was last seen in emaciated condition, barely
surfacing and hanging onto life near the entrance to the Strait of
Juan de Fuca on Sept. 15. Ken, director of the Center for Whale
Research, said the young whale was attended to by his mother Alki,
or J-36, along with a male orca, L-85, known as Mystery — who may
have been Sonic’s father, but more about that later.
Extinction, Ken told me, is “very real” — not some ploy to
obtain research dollars. The population of endangered Southern
Residents has now dropped to 76 — the lowest level since 1984. Most
experts agree that a shortage of chinook salmon — the primary prey
of the orcas — is the greatest problem facing the whales.
Last week, the Leadership Council — the governing body of the
Puget Sound Partnership — discussed what role the partnership
should play to “accelerate and amplify efforts” to restore chinook
salmon runs and save the orcas. Chinook themselves are listed as a
threatened species.
Graph: Center for
Biological Diversity
Puget Sound Partnership is charged by the Legislature with
coordinating the restoration of Puget Sound, including the recovery
of fish and wildlife populations.
The Leadership Council delayed action on a
formal resolution (PDF 149 kb) in order to allow its staff time
to identify specific actions that could be taken. Although the
resolution contains the right language, it is not enough for the
council to merely show support for an idea, said Council Chairman
Jay Manning.
Sonic was one of the whales born during the much-acclaimed “baby
boom” from late 2014 through 2015. With his death, three of the six
whales born in J pod during that period have now died. No new
calves have been born in any of the Southern Resident pods in
nearly a year.
Meanwhile, two orca moms — 23-year-old Polaris (J-28) and
42-year-old Samish (J-14) — died near the end of 2016. Those deaths
were followed by the loss of Granny (J-2), the J-pod matriarch said
to have lived more than a century. Another death was that of
Doublestuf, an 18-year-old male who died last December.
Three orcas were born in L pod during the baby boom, and none of
those whales has been reported missing so far.
Ken believes he witnessed the final hours of life for young
Sonic, who was lethargic and barely surfacing as the sun set on the
evening of Sept. 15. Two adults — Sonic’s mother and Mystery — were
the only orcas present, while the rest of J pod foraged about five
miles away.
Sonic seen with his mother in
June.
Photo: Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale
Research
That was the last time anyone saw Sonic, although his mother
Alki as well as Mystery were back with J pod during the next
observation four days later. Ken reported that Alki seemed
distressed, as often happens when a mother loses an offspring.
Ken admits that he is speculating when he says that Mystery may
have been Sonic’s father. It makes for a good story, but there
could be other reasons why the older male stayed with the mother
and calf. Still, researchers are engaged in studies that point to
the idea that mature killer whales may actually choose a mate
rather than engaging in random encounters. I’m looking forward to
the upcoming report.
I must admit that this issue of extinction has been creeping up
on me, and it’s not something that anyone wants to face. Food is
the big issue, and chinook salmon have been in short supply of
late. It will be worth watching as the whales forage on chum
salmon, as they are known to do in the fall months.
“This population cannot survive without food year-round,” Ken
wrote in a news
release. “Individuals metabolize their toxic blubber and body
fats when they do not get enough to eat to sustain their bodies and
their babies. Your diet doctor can advise you about that.
“All indications (population number, foraging spread, days of
occurrence in the Salish Sea, body condition, and live birth
rate/neonate survival) are pointing toward a predator population
that is prey-limited and nonviable,” he added.
The Center for Biological Diversity, which was involved in the
initial lawsuit that led to the endangered listing for the whales,
is calling upon the NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service to
move quickly to protect orca habitat along the coasts of
Washington, Oregon and California. Currently designated critical
habitat is limited to Puget Sound, even though the whales are known
to roam widely along the coast.
“The death of another killer whale puts this iconic population
on a dangerous path toward extinction,” Catherine Kilduff of CBD
said in a
news release. “If these whales are going to survive, we need to
move quickly. Five years from now, it may be too late.”
How fast the whales will go extinct is hard to determine,
experts say, but the current population is headed downward at an
alarming rate, no matter how one analyzes the problem.
“I would say we are already in a very dangerous situation,” said
Lance Barrett-Lennard, senior marine mammal researcher at the
Vancouver Aquarium. “If this trajectory continues and we lose two
or three more from deaths or unsuccessful birth, we will be in a
real spiral,” he told reporter Richard Watts of the
Times Colonist in Victoria, B.C.
A
five-year status review (PDF 4.3 mb), completed last December
by NMFS, takes into account the number of reproductive males and
females among the Southern Residents, the reproductive rates, and
the ratio of female to male births (more males are being born). As
the population declines, the risk of inbreeding — and even more
reproductive problems — can result.
Eric Ward of NOAA, who helped write the status report, said the
agency often estimates an extinction risk for endangered
populations, but the actual number of Southern Residents is too
small to produce a reliable number. Too many things can happen to
speed up the race toward extinction, but it is clear that the
population will continue to decline unless something changes.
As Ken describes it in simple terms, Southern Resident females
should be capable of producing an offspring every three years. With
27 reproductive females, we should be seeing nine new babies each
year. In reality, the average female produces one offspring every
nine years, which is just three per year for all three pods. That
is not enough to keep up with the death rate in recent years. To
make things worse, reproductive females have been dying long before
their time — and before they can help boost the population.
Experts talk about “quasi-extinction,” a future time when the
number of Southern Residents reaches perhaps 30 animals, at which
point the population is too small to recover no matter what
happens. Some say the population is now on the edge of a death
spiral, which may require heroic actions to push the population
back onto a recovery course.
As described in the five-year status review, prey shortage is
not the only problem confronting the Southern Residents. The
animals are known to contain high levels of toxic chemicals, which
can affect their immune systems and overall health as well as their
reproductive rates. Vessel noise can make it harder for them to
find fish to eat. On top of those problems is the constant threat
of a major oil spill, which could kill enough orcas to take the
population down to a nonviable number.
The graph shows the probability
that the Southern Resident population will fall below a given
number (N) after 100 years. Falling below 30 animals is considered
quasi-extinction. The blue line shows recent conditions. Lines to
the left show low chinook abundance, and lines to the right show
higher abundance.
Graphic: Lacy report, Raincoast Conservation
Foundation
Despite the uncertainties, Robert Lacey of Chicago Zoological
Society and his associates calculated in 2015 that under recent
conditions the Southern Resident population faces a 9 percent
chance of falling to the quasi-extinction level within 100 years.
Worsening conditions could send that rate into a tailspin. See
report for Raincoast
Conservation Foundation.
What I found most informative was how the probability of
extinction changes dramatically with food supply. (See the second
graph on this page.) A 10 percent decline in chinook salmon raises
the quasi-extinction risk from 9 percent to 73 percent, and a 20
percent decline raises the risk to more than 99 percent.
On the other hand, if chinook numbers can be increased by 20
percent, the whales would increase their population at a rate that
would ensure the population’s survival, all other things being
equal. Two additional lines on the graph represent a gradual
decline of chinook as a result of climate change over the next 100
years — a condition that also poses dangerous risks to the orca
population.
The close links between food supply and reproductive success are
explored in a story I wrote last year for the Encyclopedia
of Puget Sound.
At last Wednesday’s Puget Sound Leadership Council meeting,
members discussed a
letter from the Strait (of Juan de Fuca) Ecosystem Recovery Network
(PDF 146 kb) that called on the Puget Sound Partnership to
become engaged in salmon recovery efforts outside of Puget Sound —
namely the Klamath, Fraser and Columbia/Snake river basins.
“Such collaborative efforts must be done for the benefit of both
the SRKW and chinook fish populations, without losing sight of the
continuing need to maintain and improve the genetic diversity of
these fish populations …” states the letter.
A separate
letter from the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council (PDF 395
kb) also asks the Puget Sound Partnership to become more
engaged in orca recovery. The group is calling on the partnership
to support salmon recovery statewide, “relying on each region to
identify strategies to restore robust salmon runs.”
Rein Attemann of Washington Environmental Council said salmon on
the Columbia and Snake rivers, as well as he Fraser River in
British Columbia, are “vitally important” to the recovery of the
Southern Resident killer whales, and Puget Sound efforts should be
coordinated with other programs.
Jim Waddell, a retired civil engineer with the Army Corps of
Engineers, spoke forcefully about the need to save chinook salmon
and the Southern Residents, starting by tearing down dams on the
Snake River.
“We are out of time,” Waddell said. “The Corps of Engineers have
it within their power to begin breaching the dams within months….
The orcas cannot survive without those chinook.”
An environmental impact statement on chinook recovery includes
the option of breaching the dams, something that could be pushed
forward quickly, he said.
“Breaching the Snake River dams is the only possibility of
recovery,” Waddell said. “There is nothing left.”
Stephanie Solien, a member of the Leadership Council, said
speaking up for orcas in the fashion proposed is not something the
council has done before, but “we do have a responsibility to these
amazing animals and to the chinook and to the tribes.”
The council should work out a strategy of action before moving
forward, she added, but “we better get to moving on it.”
