On Second Look, Feds Give 'Threatened'
Listing To San Juan Orcas

Thursday, December 16, 2004
SEATTLE, WA – The federal fisheries agency on Thursday proposed giving Endangered Species Act protection to a struggling community of killer whales that spends much of the year near Washington's San Juan Islands.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said it plans to list the whales, known as the Southern Resident population, as threatened. The designation could become final a year from now, following a period of public comment.

It was the second time the agency has considered whether to list the whales. Two years ago, it concluded the orcas did not warrant protection because the population did not meet the definition of being biologically distinct from other killer whales.

A federal judge last year ordered the agency to reconsider, after eight environmental groups and concerned individuals filed a lawsuit.

"This is a victory for sound science, the orcas, and the people of the Pacific Northwest," said Brent Plater, attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, a plaintiff group based in San Francisco.

"This is a close-knit family of highly intelligent whales that have been living cooperatively with each other in Puget Sound for thousands of years," said attorney Patti Goldman of Earthjustice in Seattle. "The federal government refused to protect this remarkable family of whales until the people of Puget Sound came together, and with one voice, demanded it."

In 2002, instead of listing the orcas under the ESA, the agency designated them a depleted species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which provides for study and protection of individuals but does not protect habitat. That lack of habitat protection spurred the legal battle.

"Habitat protection is key," said Fred Felleman of the Orca Conservancy, a Seattle-based plaintiff in the case. "Conservationists know that you can't save a species by protecting individuals."

Felleman expressed concern about the future of Endangered Species Act protections, noting the recent Bush administration proposal to drastically cut back so-called critical habitat areas for threatened and endangered salmon runs.

The orcas now number 84, down from an unknown high that scientists believe could have exceeded 200. That count includes a 5-year-old male, L-98 or "Luna," who's been separated from the group for 3½ years, but it excludes two calves born this year. The calves will be added to the total if they survive to next year.

The population has been studied intensively for three decades – since scientists realized individuals could be identified by the shape of their dorsal fins and black-and-white patterns – and its decline clearly documented.

In its original decision, the fisheries service agreed the orcas "face a relatively high risk of extinction," but concluded that transient killer whales along the coast or so-called "offshore" populations farther out would fill the gap if they disappeared.

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik rejected that finding, calling it speculative and unsupported.

Lasnik found that the orcas had undergone major declines since the 1960s, when dozens were captured for sale to aquariums. The captures ended in the 1970s.

The three family groups that make up the resident population – the J, K and L pods – have since been struggling with pollution, human encroachment and dwindling salmon runs.

A recent surge of federal orca-research funds – $1.5 million for this year and next were secured by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. – is helping scientists learn more. And researchers have invited the Navy and other vessel operators to help keep track the orcas' ocean travels. Scientists do not know where they spend winters.

Orcas, actually a kind of dolphin, are found in all the world's oceans.

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune