Puget Sound Killer Whale to Be Added to Endangered Species List
By Charles Bethea
November 16, 2005 In a single day, the fates of two totemic mammals, one terrestrial and the other aquatic, may have swung in opposite directions.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that it will add the southern resident killer whale, a distinct variant of orca whale that lives in Washington State’s Puget Sound for a significant part of each year, to the Endangered Species List. Simultaneously, the Department of the Interior announced its plan to remove the grizzly bear, a species that had been protected by the Endangered Species Act for 30 years, from the same list (see Outside Online’s “Grizzly Bear to Be Removed from Endangered Species List”).
The decision will give the southern resident Puget Sound orca the highest level of protection available under the law. It will require federal agencies to make sure that activities do not harm the whales, and provide better protection from bio-accumulative toxins, pollution, and the widespread loss of salmon, key contributors to the species’ dwindling numbers in the sound.
“This decision shows the belief that these animals are at serious risk of extinction, and the federal government wants to do something about it,” Brian Gorman, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, told Outside Online.
There are two populations of resident killer whales in the area— northern residents and southern residents. The northern residents live north of Vancouver Island while the southern residents live around the Salmon Islands in Puget Sound. Three pods of southern resident orcas, totaling 89 whales, make their home in Puget Sound during various times of the year. In the 1950s, the southern resident orcas numbered well over 100. Although an increase of some five southern resident whales has been reported over the last few years, their numbers declined by 20 percent from 1996 to 2001, setting them on a perilous path towards extinction.
“The fact that [NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service] decided to list these orcas as endangered is extremely significant,” Naki Stevens, Director of Programs at People for Puget Sound, a Seattle non-profit dedicated to the protection of Puget Sound, told Outside Online. “If they had not done so, these whales could very soon be gone. What this is all about, though, is that Puget Sound is endangered itself. It has been under attack from all sides for decades, and we have failed to protect it.”
The fight for the endangered classification of the southern resident has been going on since 2002. It was then that the southern residents were officially distinguished from northern residents, based on their geographic locations, and from the specific transient killer whale species that drifts through the sound.
The transient and resident types differ in morphology, genetics, behavior, and diet. Residents feed on fish, and their distribution is closely tied with peak abundance of various species of salmon. Transients feed on marine mammals.
Yet, despite this distinction and the fact that the species was at an all-time low of 79 specimens in the sound in July 2002 time, the National Marine Fisheries Service did not attempt to have them listed as endangered. Instead, they were placed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which protects marine mammals from unsustainable harvest levels rather than protecting their habitats.
“What we’re hoping is that this listing will ratchet up protection of Puget Sound and prevent toxic pollution while promoting habitat restoration and other life affirming developments. If we don’t fight, Puget Sound will become a super-tanker highway that will spell the end of life in its waters,” said Stevens. “Hopefully, the listing of the orca will act as a lever for action to protect not only whales, but all life in the sound.”
