Although the Endangered Species Act may encourage extraordinary
efforts to save Puget Sound’s killer whales from extinction, it
cannot be used to bring home the last Puget Sound orca still in
captivity, a court has ruled.
A 51-year-old killer whale named Lolita, otherwise called
Tokitae, has been living in Miami Seaquarium since shortly after
her capture in 1970. Her clan — the Southern Resident killer whales
— were listed as endangered in 2005, but the federal listing
specifically excluded captive killer whales.
In 2013, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
successfully petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to
have Lolita included among the endangered whales. But the
endangered listing has done nothing to help those who hoped
Lolita’s owners would be forced to allow a transition of the whale
back into Puget Sound.
This week, the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta
reiterated its earlier finding that Lolita has not been injured or
harassed to the point that her captivity at the Miami Seaquarium
violates the federal Endangered Species Act, or ESA.
Tomorrow is the annual Ways of Whales Workshop on Whidbey
Island, a chance to enjoy the company of top-level whale experts,
careful observers of marine mammals and people inspired by
nature.
Tickets will be available at the door. Go to
“Ways of Whales Workshop” for the schedule and details, such as
lunch and the post-workshop gathering at Captain Whidbey Inn.
For those who cannot attend, Orca Network is planning to stream
the event live on the Internet. Connect with the
Livestream network to join the event via computer.
In addition to speakers providing the latest information about
orcas, humpbacks and other species, Howard Garrett of Orca Network
will discuss progress in the long-running effort to return Lolita,
or Tokitae, from the Miami Seaquarium to her original home in the
Salish Sea.
For this blog post at least, I will go with Howie’s suggestion
that we call the whale “Toki.” “Tokitae” was the first name she was
given, and Howie says her trainers and staff in Miami shortened
that to “Toki.”
“She is accustomed to being called ‘Toki,’ so now with
indications that a combination of changing public attitudes,
questionable revenue prospects and legal developments may actually
bring her home some day soon, ‘Toki’ sounds fitting and proper,”
Howie wrote in a recent email to supporters.
“Toki’s retirement home” in the
San Juan Islands, as Howard Garrett calls it.
Photo: Orca Network
A lawsuit involving Toki is scheduled for trial in May, although
the date could change. The lawsuit claims that keeping her in
captivity is a violation of the Endangered Species Act. If you
recall, she was listed as a member of the endangered Southern
Resident pods following a legal dispute with the federal government
— but so far that determination has been of little consequence.
The latest lawsuit will consider, at least in part, the plan to
return Toki to the San Juan Islands, where she would be kept in an
open net pen until she can be reunited with her family. If a
reunion does not work out, she would be cared for under better
conditions than in a confined tank for the rest of her life, or so
the plan goes.
It came as a surprise when Howie told me that attorneys for the
Miami Seaquarium plan to visit the exact site in the San Juan
Islands where Toki would be taken. One argument will consider which
location — a tank in Miami or natural waters of the San Juans —
would be more suitable for her health and well-being. Of course,
attorneys for the Seaquarium will argue that she has done well
enough for the past 40 years, so leave her alone.
Howie said he is hopeful that efforts by the investment firm
Arle Capital to sell off the company that owns Miami Seaquarium
(Spain’s Parques Reunidos) will help with the cause to return Toki
to Puget Sound. (See
Reuters report.) Perhaps the whale’s value has diminished as an
investment, encouraging corporate owners to try something new?
A seven-week-old baby orca born to our Southern Resident pods
was reported missing and presumed dead today. This was the newborn
orca who brought so much hope and excitement to our area, being the
first reported birth in more than two years.
The baby orca, L-120, with its
mother a few weeks ago while still alive. // Photo courtesy
of Carrie Sapp.
When I called Ken Balcomb this morning, he was in a “subjective”
state of mind, as he put it. Ken, of the Center for Whale Research,
has been keeping track of the three Southern Resident pods since
1976, and he’s clearly worried that these whales may be headed for
extinction.
As we talked on the phone, Ken was peering through the large
windows of his home on San Juan Island and watching a large purse
seine vessel scooping up chum salmon and possibly other species as
bycatch.
“I look at this every day, and I’ve seen this for almost 40
years,” Ken said. “There is no letup on the human part. Virtually
no fish are getting past the outlet. We know the Fraser River runs
are in poor shape, and our management doesn’t seem to take any kind
of ecosystem approach.”
Salmon biologists set the sport and commercial fishing seasons
based on an estimate of the number of fish returning. They update
that estimate during the season based on harvest numbers caught in
the nets.
“Whatever they are doing, it obviously has not worked, since
we’ve seen run after run not doing well,” Ken said. “I get
subjective about it and wonder when our society is going to do
something to get more prey (for the whales).”
Ken said there was much hope for the seven-week-old orca,
designated L-120, the third known offspring of the 23-year-old
mother designated L-86.
“I was optimistic,” he told me. “When we first saw the baby, it
had a squished-looking head, but even human babies can be born with
a flattened head.
“Within a week, it was filling out well and was energetic,” he
continued, and there was no reason to believe the calf would
die.
The Southern Residents are known to bear a heavy burden of toxic
chemicals, but transient killer whales are even more contaminated.
The difference may be that transients, which eat marine mammals,
may be getting enough food. Was the orca mom unable to nurse her
baby? Did the toxic chemicals cause an immune deficiency? Or was
there another problem? We’ll probably never know.
All three orca pods were probably out in the ocean when the
youngster disappeared. The mom was seen with other whales on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday without the calf — something that would
not happen if the baby were alive.
L-120 was the third calf born to L-86. Her second calf, L-112,
washed up dead at Long Beach in February 2010. After much
investigation, researchers concluded that L-112 had died of blunt
force trauma, but what caused the injury was never determined. Ken
suspects some kind of explosive detonation, although that cause was
discounted by investigators.
Howard Garrett of Orca Network said the orcas have faced a
shortage of food, toxic chemicals, routine shooting with guns and a
series of captures that depleted the population.
“We haven’t treated these magnificent orcas well at all,” Howie
said in a news release. “As a society we are not successfully
restoring this orca community, despite the many warnings and legal
declarations.
“Our challenge is clear: Bountiful salmon runs must be restored
and protected or we won’t see resident orcas in the Salish Sea in
coming years,” he added.
The latest population count places the total number at 78, the
lowest number since 1986, according to records by the Center of
Whale Research.
On Thursday, it appears the transient killer whales started the
day in Poulsbo’s Liberty Bay, passed by Illahee and went out Rich
Passage about 10 a.m. I heard from researcher Mark Sears that they
had spent the day traveling around Vashon Island, ending up at 8
p.m. at the south end of Bainbridge Island. Check out my story in
today’s Kitsap Sun for a few more details.
———-
I’ve been hearing about transient killer whales in Puget Sound
all year. Dozens of these seal-eating orcas have been sighted in
small groups here and there throughout the region. Check out
Orca
Network’s Archives for reports made to that organization.
Transients have come and gone quickly from Sinclair Inlet near
Bremerton a few times this year. But, as far as I know, yesterday
was the first time since 2004 that they made it all the way into
Dyes Inlet.
By the way, the last report we had last night was at 7:30 in
Ostrich Bay, but an observer reported them at 9:20 p.m. on the west
side of Dyes Inlet and posted a comment on the story. (Appreciation
goes to “rgdimages#217099.”)
Howie informed me this morning that a group of four transients
was seen coming out of Liberty Bay near Poulsbo at 6:45 a.m. We’ll
try to report whether those are the same animals as the ones in
Dyes Inlet and where they go next. To report to Orca Network, one
can send an e-mail, info@orcanetwork.org, or call (866)
ORCANET.
It seems to be a big year for the transients. Why this is
happening is open to speculation, which is always risky, but I
appreciate Ken’s willingness to think out loud sometimes and kick a
few ideas around. I mean, if scientists are unable to come up with
hypotheses, there is nothing to test for.
So one possible explanation is that transients are here because
residents are somewhere else. Residents may be somewhere else
because there aren’t many salmon here right now. On the other hand,
maybe seals and/or sea lions are finding enough to eat, and
transients are finding success in hunting the smaller marine
mammals.
This whole notion raises all kinds of questions for me, and I’ll
try to explore these ideas in future stories. For example, if there
are fish for seals and sea lions, why aren’t the resident killer
whales eating them? Maybe the smaller marine mammals are
concentrating on smaller fish? If fish are in short supply, will
the population of seals and sea lions crash, or will these animals
go somewhere else, too? And, given the cyclic nature of salmon
populations, what is happening to the entire food chain — from the
forage fish that salmon and seals eat up to the largest predators,
the killer whales?
