Federal Officials To Investigate Reports
Of Injured Orca

Thursday, July 14, 2005
SEATTLE, WA - The National Marine Fisheries service said Thursday it will investigate reports of an orca injured in a collision with a whale-watching boat off San Juan Island last week.

Tourists on the Eagle Wing were watching whales July 3 in Andrews Bay, south of Snug Harbor, when their boat was bumped, according to a report in the San Juan Journal this week.

"The frisky little critter was a little too curious that day," the boat's skipper, Brett Soberg, told The Associated Press by cellphone Thursday as he led another tour away from a pier in Victoria, British Columbia.

Soberg said he didn't see the whale make contact with the boat, but saw it "dive, then shift under the stern. Then that caused the boat to lift up."

He said it wasn't a hard bump.

A passenger aboard the nearby Stellar Sea then saw the whale swim by, apparently bleeding from a cut.

"We weren't really sure," Stellar Sea Capt. Tom McMillen told the newspaper. "She thought she saw blubber, which would mean a cut at least an inch deep."

The incident was initially reported to Soundwatch and the Whale Watch Operators Association Northwest, which informed the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Fred Felleman, northwest director of Ocean Advocates in Seattle, told the AP on Thursday that had asked the agency to investigate the accident and find out whether the animal was seriously injured.

"I want to find out what happened so we can avoid this from happening again," Felleman said.

Brent Norberg, the agency's regional marine mammal coordinator, said the fisheries service will investigate.

Voluntary guidelines set by Whale Watch Operators Association Northwest require boats not to cross an orca's path and to stop their engines within 100 yards of a whale.

Harold Benischek, owner of Eagle Wing Tours, told the paper his boat was following guidelines and that his skipper and passengers were surprised when the whale "touched the boat."

The orca was most likely a member of the K or L pod, two of three killer whale groups that spend much of the year near Washington's San Juan Islands, said Ken Balcomb, an orca expert with Friday Harbor-based Center for Whale Research. The whales had been following salmon in the area when the incident happened.

"I was sitting on my porch videotaping all the boats and the whales," Balcomb told the AP. He reviewed the tape but didn't capture the collision. "I did see whales very close to the boat that was struck."

The whales have since headed out to the ocean and have not been seen in inland waters since the incident, he said. When they return, perhaps later this month, Balcomb's group will try to determine which whale was injured.

"I'm sure that the injury isn't serious enough to cause any long-term issue," Balcomb said, adding that all the boats had been stopped when he saw them.

Puget Sound's resident whale population is made up of the J, K and L pods. The National Marine Fisheries Service is considering all three for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Source: The Seattle PI