The Fight To Save The Orcas

Tuesday, January 23, 2007
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA - As the Canadian government sits on a plan to help British Columbia's endangered orcas, five more disappeared last year, making it the worst year of losses since 2001.

One was Raven, a young mother with sunken skin behind her head from starvation or disease. After Raven disappeared, her sister tried to look after her newborn, which still needed to nurse. But the calf disappeared after a few weeks.

In December, the sister's calf also disappeared.

They are presumed dead, their bodies swallowed by the sea. Why they died may never be known. The orcas that roam the busy waters around Vancouver Island and Washington State now number just 84, and one expert says delays by the Canadian government in implementing a strategy to protect them could be slowing their recovery.

"I'm embarrassed as a Canadian," said Lance Barrett-Lennard, one of B.C.'s top orca experts and an independent scientist with the Vancouver Aquarium. "The longer a species spends in a low population state, the worse it is, the greater the chance of a catastrophe wiping it out."

In November, the U.S. government finalized a recovery strategy to increase and protect the orcas' fragile numbers as required under its endangered-species legislation. But the similar Canadian strategy has sat at federal fisheries offices since last June while under review.

"This could drag on indefinitely," said Dr. Barrett-Lennard, co-chair of a 24-member team of scientists, industry and government representatives producing the Canadian recovery strategy.

He said that the government is dealing with orcas in a "cavalier" way, and that a new federal policy on defining and protecting "critical habitat" of endangered species could hurt other endangered species in Canada.

This draft policy, based on Canada's three-year-old Species at Risk Act, would allow social and economic factors to be considered along with scientific accounts in decisions regarding a species' critical habitat -- areas considered crucial for their survival. The policy would allow the government to delay protection indefinitely. "I can't imagine why this policy exists except that it relieves the government of responsibility," Dr. Barrett-Lennard said.

The critical habitat proposed for B.C.'s southern resident orcas is primarily in the Georgia, Johnstone and Juan de Fuca straits. If the Canadian government agrees these waters are crucial for the whales, it would be have to study how to tread lightly in those areas, according to Dr. Barrett-Lennard.

John Davis, a special ministerial adviser on species at risk with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, says the government is reviewing other parts of the team's orca-recovery strategy in addition to the critical-habitat section. "It takes time to do these things," he said.

Dr. Barrett-Lennard hasn't seen his team's recovery strategy since he turned it over in June. He said he has asked that his name be removed from it and has suggested the names of all team members be removed should there be any government editing of their document.

B.C.'s orcas face many threats, but a lack of salmon could be the their biggest problem. Raven, the whale that died last year, had a visible depression, or lack of body fat, on her head, which indicates starvation from lack of food or disease.

East of Victoria lies San Juan Island, a U.S. island that is home to the non-profit Center for Whale Research. According to Dr. Barrett-Lennard, no one knows more about the southern orcas' daily movements than the senior scientist of this research centre, Ken Balcomb.

Mr. Balcomb says he hears a lot of "words" about orca recovery on both sides of the border. "But the whales don't eat words, they eat salmon and that is what has to be protected."

In 2001, seven whales disappeared. The five deaths last year, including 12-year-old Raven and the two calves, a 20-year-old male and a 34-year-old mother of three, are depressing for researchers because the previous four years had only seen between one and three losses.

The recent losses are significant because the orcas disappeared in the summer and fall, Mr. Balcomb said. Most of the deaths in this group of orcas occur in winter.

"I suspect there will be at least several more missing by the time we see them again in the spring, because the feeding conditions were apparently not good. They didn't go into the winter with a big layer of fat," Mr. Balcomb said.

So far, the only critical habitat identified by either Canadian or U.S. recovery teams for these killer whales is in inside waters, such as Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia. But the orcas spend half the year in unsheltered, outer waters, searching for food. For outer waters to be considered "critical habitat," scientists like Mr. Balcomb have to prove their importance.

"Sooner or later, both sides of the border have to acknowledge that if we want to keep these charismatic creatures in the environment around here, we're going to have to designate pretty large areas of critical habitat and make sure there is food enough," he said. "I can't just count them until they're all gone."

Orcas in trouble

The population of killer whales living in the busy waters of south Vancouver Island and Washington State has been reduced to 84. Following are the number that have disappeared for reasons other than old age.

1995 4
1996 6
1997 5
1998 5
1999 7
2000 4
2001 7
2002 1
2003 3
2004 1
2005 2
2006 5

Source: The Globe and Mail