A student art contest focused on endangered species produced
some impressive paintings and drawings this year for the 14th
annual Endangered Species Day, which was celebrated this past
Friday.
The contest, called Saving Endangered Species Youth Art Contest,
is sponsored by the Endangered Species Coalition. It gives the
young artists and their audience a chance to understand species at
risk of extinction. Some choose plants and animal that are well
known; others go for the obscure.
The grand prize this year was awarded to Sam Hess, a first
grader from Portland, Ore. He depicted a Texas blind salamander, a
rare cave-dwelling species native to just one place, the San Marcos
Pool of the Edwards Aquifer in Hays County, Texas. The salamander,
which grows to about 5 inches, features blood-red gills for
breathing oxygen from the water.
The art contest, for students K-12, is sponsored by the
Endangered Species Coalition, including more than 450 conservation,
scientific, education, religious, recreation, business and
community organizations.
“We owe it to this generation of children to pass down healthy
ecosystems brimming with wildlife,” said Leda Huta, the coalition’s
executive director, in a
news release. “Every year, their artwork demonstrates how
deeply they feel for nature and all of its wondrous creatures –
large and small.”
The killer whale J-17, known as Princess Angeline, seems to have
made a remarkable recovery since December, when the 42-year-old
female was diagnosed with “peanut head” — an indicator of
malnutrition that almost always leads to death.
Princess Angeline, J-17, in
Admiralty Inlet Sunday
Photo: Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research
Federal permits: NMFS 21238 / DFO SARA 388
Now Princess Angeline looks much better and shows few signs of
that dire condition, said Ken Balcomb, director of the Center for
Whale Research who got a good look at her Sunday when J pod came
into Puget Sound.
“Since New Year’s Eve, J-17 has fared much better than we
expected,” Ken told me. “They must have found some winter food up
in Georgia Strait.”
At one point, Ken had said it would be a “miracle” if she were
ever seen again.
Last week was National Sea Otter Awareness Week, recognized by
many aquariums, marine educators and environmental groups across
the country. Although I was on vacation last week, I thought I
could still bring up some interesting facts about these amusing and
ecologically important creatures.
I guess I should mention first that sea otters are rarely
spotted in Puget Sound. If you do see an otter — whether in
saltwater or freshwater — it is most likely a river otter. I’ll
outline some differences between the two further on in this blog
post.
Occasionally, sea otters have been sighted in Puget Sound as far
south as Olympia, but their historical range is described as the
outer coast from Alaska to California — including the Strait of
Juan de Fuca west of Port Angeles, according to a new report
(PDF 1.4 mb) by the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
An international team of taxonomists has chosen the “Top 10 New
Species of 2018” from among some 18,000 new species named last
year.
They range from the large — a majestic tree that is critically
endangered — to the small — a microscopic single-celled organism
discovered in an aquarium with no obvious connection to any known
species.
They include a fish that has survived in the deepest, darkest
part of the Pacific Ocean — at record depth — with credit for its
discovery going to a team of scientists led by a University of
Washington researcher.
The list of new species also includes a rare great ape — an
orangutan that has been identified as a separate species — as well
as a prehistoric marsupial lion identified from fossils found in
Australia.
The 11th annual list is compiled by the International Institute
for Species Exploration at the College of Environmental Science and
Forestry at the State University of New York.
I’m hoping you will enjoy another dose of kids’ art, this time
related to endangered species. An art contest was recently
completed in concert with the 13th annual Endangered
Species Day, which was this past Friday.
“Hawksbill Sea Turtle” by grand
prize winner Brandon Xie, a fourth-grader in Lexington, Mass.
Image: Endangered Species Coalition
More than 1,500 students from around the United States entered
this year’s “Saving Endangered Species Youth Art Contest,”
according to organizers. The goal of the contest is to encourage
public appreciation for imperiled wildlife and to increase support
for saving endangered species.
“The artwork created by this generation of young people is
clearly demonstrating how they think deeply about the plight of
endangered species,” said Leda Huta, executive director of the
Endangered Species Coalition, which sponsors the contest. “It is
clear that they recognize not just our role in impacting wildlife
and plants, but also our opportunities to bring them back from the
brink of extinction. Each work of art is an inspiration to all of
us to do more, to save more,” she said in a
statement.
Salmon harvests in Puget Sound have been shared between Indian
and non-Indian fishermen since the 1970s, when the courts ruled
that treaties guarantee tribal members half the total catch.
Now a third party — Puget Sound’s endangered orcas — could take
a seat at the negotiations table, at least in a figurative sense,
as their shortage of food becomes a critical issue.
It isn’t at all clear how fishing seasons could be structured to
help the Southern Resident killer whales, but the issue was
discussed seriously at some length yesterday, when the 2018 salmon
forecasts were presented to sport and commercial fishers. Thus
began the annual negotiations between state and tribal salmon
managers to set up this year’s fishing seasons.
General areas, in blue, where
fishing closures in British Columbia are planned to provide extra
salmon for Southern Resident killer whales.
Map: Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Penny Becker, a wildlife manager with the Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife, said a steady decline in the body mass of the
Southern Residents has been observed, as the population fell to a
30-year low of 76 animals. People are calling for emergency
measures, she said, noting that both Gov. Jay Inslee and the
Legislature are working on ideas to protect the whales. See
Water Ways Feb. 23 and
Water Ways Feb. 17 and the
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound, Nov. 2, 2017.
Concerns are running equally high in British Columbia, where the
orcas spend much of their time in the Strait of Georgia. The
Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans has proposed an
experiment with fishing closures this year in four areas frequented
by the orcas:
Mouth of the Fraser River
West side of Pender Island
South side of Saturna Island, and
Strait of Juan de Fuca
“The primary objective of the proposed measures is to improve
chinook salmon availability for SRKW by decreasing potential
fishery competition, as well as minimizing physical and acoustic
disturbance in key foraging areas to the extent possible,” states a
“discussion paper” (PDF 1.9 mb) released Feb. 15.
The closures would be in place from May through September this
year, with increased monitoring to measure potential benefits to
the whales. Comments on the proposal are being taken until March
15.
Canadians also are working with ship owners to see if noise can
be reduced significantly by slowing down large vessels moving
through the Salish Sea. Previous studies have shown that noise
reduces the ability of whales to communicate and to find food
through echolocation. Experts are compiling the results of the
“Haro Strait Vessel Slowdown Trial” conducted last year.
One bill in the Washington Legislature would require boaters to
slow down to 7 knots when in the vicinity of killer whales.
Limiting fishing in specific areas of Puget Sound, such as the
west side of San Juan Island, could be implemented through
state-tribal negotiations, Penny said. The closures would occur
during summer when chinook salmon — the orcas’ primary prey — are
in the area. One option would be to implement the closures on
certain days of the week.
Some people have talked about giving the orcas a clean break
from whale watchers, and that could involve excluding whale-watch
boats from salmon-rich areas at the same time as the fishing
closures.
“We’re looking for creative solutions to make this work within
our constraints,” Penny told the group.
One fisherman at the meeting said every person on the water
should automatically turn off his motor and sit still when whales
are approaching. It’s a courtesy to help the killer whales find
fish, he said, and anyway the fish are not going to bite on one’s
line while whales are around. Generally, they don’t stay long in
one place.
One bill in the Legislature would help the Southern Residents by
increasing hatchery production of chinook salmon in Puget Sound.
Reaction to the idea has been mixed, because hatchery salmon have
been known to affect the fitness and genetic makeup of wild salmon.
If approved, the boost in hatchery production would likely be a
temporary solution.
Sport fishermen generally like the idea of increased hatchery
production, because they would be encouraged to catch all the
hatchery fish not eaten by killer whales.
The hatchery bill, HB
2417, was approved unanimously by the House Agriculture and
Natural Resources Committee. No further action has been taken so
far, but its provisions could be attached to the supplementary
budget with funds specified for hatchery production.
Tuesday’s meeting in Lacey launched the beginning of the
negotiations between state and tribal salmon managers, a process
known as North of Falcon. The name comes the fishery management
area from Cape Falcon in Oregon north to the Canadian border. The
full schedule of
meetings and related documents can be found on the WDFW
website.
Forecasts approved by WDFW and the tribes predict poor returns
of several salmon stocks this year in Puget Sound, the Pacific
Ocean and the Columbia River, resulting in limited fishing
opportunities.
“We will definitely have to be creative in developing salmon
fisheries this year,” Kyle Adicks, salmon policy lead for WDFW,
said in a news
release. “I encourage people to get involved and provide input
on what they see as the priorities for this season’s
fisheries.”
Warm ocean conditions and low streamflows in recent years
affected several salmon stocks returning this year. As ocean
conditions return to normal, experts hope for improved salmon runs
in years to come.
A total of about 557,000 coho returning to Puget Sound is about
6 percent below the average over the past 10 years. Extremely low
numbers predicted for the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Snohomish
River are expected to force managers to limit fishing in those
areas.
While hatchery chinook returning to Puget Sound are expected to
be 38 percent higher than last year, the need to protect
“threatened” wild chinook could mean ongoing fishing restrictions
in many areas.
Next month, NOAA, which oversees threatened and endangered
species, is expected to provide guidance for managing this year’s
fisheries, including possible discussions about protecting Southern
Resident killer whales.
Plans for protecting Puget Sound chinook and Southern Resident
killer whales have begun to overlap in major ways, as saving one
involves saving the other.
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.”
Once again, the National Marine Fisheries Service has determined
in official findings that three common pesticides — chlorpyrifos,
diazinon and malathion — raise the risk of extinction for
threatened and endangered salmon.
A crop duster sprays pesticide
on a field near an irrigation ditch.
Photo: NOAA/USFWS
By extension, for the first time, the agency also concluded that
those same pesticides threaten Puget Sound’s endangered orca
population by putting their prey — chinook and other salmon — at
risk.
This politically and legally charged issue — which has been
around for more than 15 years — has gone beyond a debate over
potential harm from pesticides. It also raises uncomfortable
questions about whether our society will follow science as we try
to solve environmental problems.
The immediate finding of “jeopardy” — meaning that the three
pesticides pose a risk of extinction — comes in a
biological opinion (PDF 415.6 mb) that is more than 3,700 pages
long and covers not just salmon but, for the first time, dozens of
other marine species on the Endangered Species List.
The report follows a scientific methodology for assessing the
effects of pesticides that arises from suggestions by the National
Academy of Sciences. The NAS report (PDF 14.2 mb)
attempted to reconcile differing methods of assessing risk that had
been used by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and NMFS.
EPA’s original assessment raised no concerns about the effect of
these pesticides on the survival of salmon populations. The
original lawsuit by environmental groups forced the EPA to
“consult” with NMFS, as required by the Endangered Species Act. The
result was the first jeopardy finding in 2008. For background, see
Water Ways,
Aug. 11, 2008, in which I reported that the long wait for
regulatory action on pesticides may be about over. Little did I
know.
The biological opinion, or BiOp for short, examines both the
direct harms to species exposed to pesticides — such as effects on
behavior, reproduction and immune function — as well as indirect
effects — such as whether the pesticides wipe out insects needed
for the fish to eat.
The new BiOp is considered a pilot study for future pesticide
assessments.
“Notably,” states the document, “this Opinion represents the
first consultation using newly developed approaches and the first
to assess all listed species throughout the U.S., its territories,
and protectorates. Future Opinions regarding pesticides may utilize
different analyses and approaches as the interagency consultation
effort proceeds.”
The next step is for the EPA to restrict the use of the
pesticides to reduce the risks for salmon and other species. Among
suggested measures, the BiOp says those who use pesticides must
limit the total amount of chemicals applied in high-risk areas,
such as streams. No-spray buffers or similar alternatives are
suggested.
Interim no-spray buffers, established by the courts, will remain
in effect until the EPA takes action. The interim buffers were put
on, taken off, and are back on as a result of the lengthy court
battle between the agencies and environmental groups. Pesticide
manufacturers have weighed in, arguing about the need for
pesticides without undue restrictions.
The Trump administration asked the court for a two-year delay in
the release of the BiOp, but NMFS ultimately met the deadline when
the judge failed to rule on the request in time to make a
difference.
I discussed some of the ongoing intrigue and a bit of history in
a
Water Ways post last August, after EPA Administrator Scott
Pruitt reversed course on an impending ban on chlorpyrifos. The
proposed ban, approved during the Obama administration, came in
response to studies that showed how the chemical could adversely
affect children’s brains.
Although it took legal action to get to this point, agency and
independent scientists have worked together to study the problem
and come up with solutions. The question now is whether
policymakers and politicians will take reasonable steps to reduce
the risks based upon these findings, which are complex, evolving
and rarely definitive for all time.
As I was going back through the blog posts I’ve written about
pesticides, I recalled that President George W. Bush wanted to
limit scientific consultations in an effort to streamline the
regulatory process — much as President Trump’s people are doing
today. Check out
Water Ways from March 4, 2009, which shows a video of President
Obama reversing the Bush policy and speaking out for increased
input from scientists.
When it comes to human health and the environment, it is good to
remember that without the work of scientists, many species
throughout the world would have been wiped out long ago. Human
cancer, disease and brain impairment would be far worse today
without regulations based on scientific findings. Science can tell
us about the risk of pesticides and other threats to salmon and
orcas. But knowledge is not enough. People must take reasonable
actions to protect themselves and the environment. And so the story
goes on.
Last week, Earthjustice, which represents environmental groups
in the legal battle, released the biological opinion, which had
been sent by NOAA as part of the legal case. The group posted links
to the document and related information in a
news release. As far as I know, nobody in the Trump
administration has spoken about the findings.
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.”
A newly named stingray that lives in freshwater has joined an
omnivorous rat and a couple of leggy wormlike creatures as part of
the Top-10 New Species for 2017.
Sulawesi root rat
Photo: Kevin Rowe, Museums Victoria
The top-ten list, compiled by the College of Environmental
Science and Forestry (ESF) at the State University of New York,
also includes a tiny spider found in India, a katydid discovered in
Malaysia and a spiny ant from Papua New Guinea. Two interesting
plants also made the list.
It’s often amusing to learn how various critters are first
discovered and ultimately how they are named — sometimes for
fictional characters with similar characteristics.
ESF President Quentin Wheeler, who founded the International
Institute for Species Exploration, said nearly 200,000 new species
have been discovered since the top-10 list was started a decade
ago.
“This would be nothing but good news were it not for the
biodiversity crisis and the fact that we’re losing species faster
than we’re discovering them,” he said. “The rate of extinction is
1,000 times faster than in prehistory. Unless we accelerate species
exploration, we risk never knowing millions of species or learning
the amazing and useful things they can teach us.”
