The Southern Resident killer whales have been listed as endangered in Canada since 2003 and the US since 2005, yet their population has continued to decline. The summer of 2019 has been unprecedented in the lack of time the Southern Residents have spent in inland waters as Fraser River Chinook salmon continue to decline. Previous recovery efforts are not working.

There has been a disproportionate focus on regulating small vessels. The short visits from the Southern Residents to the Salish Sea this summer have given us an opportunity to glimpse what the new vessel regulations look like – and what their unintended consequences may be. The few days the whales have been here have already resulted in several disturbing scenarios, including private boats speeding over the whales while no whale-watch vessels were present, enforcement and education boats being unable to get updated locations of the whales without whale-watch boats present, the Canadian Navy undertaking active testing without being aware of J-Pod’s exact location in the Strait of Georgia, and researchers being unable to collect vital data due to being unaware of the whales’ location during their limited visits.

The moratorium on viewing Southern Residents in Canada is having adverse impacts to the whales, and having different rules in each country is confusing. We are requesting that viewing distances in both the US and Canada are matched; specifically, that there is a 300 yard/meter viewing distance for Southern Residents and a 200 yard/meter viewing distance for Bigg’s killer whales, as is currently law in Washington State.

Despite all of the above, additional vessel regulations are being considered for the year(s) ahead. We, the undersigned, are requesting that NOAA, DFO, the Orca Task Force, and working groups on both sides of the border stop creating further small vessel regulations that may be unintentionally harming the whales, and start focusing predominantly on salmon recovery.

Prepared by Monika Wieland Shields and Cindy Hansen, orca advocates