The Last Generation: Southern resident orcas in danger of extinction

this is a cute 13 News special report the last generation the southern resident orcas an icon in the Puget Sound the fish eating killer whales that have called these waters home for tens of thousands of years and then we showed up we over harvested their prey we dammed the salmon runs we polluted their waters both with toxins and noise we captured their young and shipped them off to marine parks and still they survived until now now they're at a breaking point and they probably know it they know they're hungry they're spread out looking for food far more than they find it and they know their babies are dying Tahlequah certainly did she carried her dead calf on her head for 17 days and 1,000 miles she showed the world her pain these resident orcas with tight family bonds and deep emotional intelligence a population down to 75 whales when it's believed historically more than 200 swim these waters I've spent the past year analyzing this question is this the last generation of southern resident orcas I've looked at the threats to their survival the lack of prey the contaminants the vessel disturbance I've interviewed the foremost experts in this field and press the people who have the power to make a change I've traveled across this state and even to Canada learning about solutions and meeting the people who are pushing them forward a year later I've come to a conclusion and it's one I don't make lightly I'm dropping the question mark there is no question this is the last generation if humans fail to act now to turn it around but don't take it from me I'm just a journalist you're the expert is this the last generation yes that's Ken Malcolm he studied and counted these orcas for the federal government for more than four decades he's one of many voices you'll hear from this hour as we investigate what's plaguing this treasured population the governor is another the telecoil story touched every mother and father because we saw ourselves in her pain but it is something you don't want to forget and you need that memory sometimes spur you to action and we're asking people in Washington to take action it reminds me to take action along with the tribes finally people seem to be paying some attention because after the killer whales gone we'll be gone and people need to know that and you and I are about to explore how far people are willing to go to save the southern residents I'm Simone del Rosario and this is the last generation if we want to keep them around we got to do something fast a call to action from Ken Malcolm a leading researcher on the southern resident killer whales it's a warning we've heard before we are in critical danger that was six years ago when q 13 News put a spotlight on this species on the brink of extinction could it happen that's the wrong question is it happening it's happening right now could we stop it maybe since these interviews the southern resident population is down seven more whales a problem that's plagued it for much longer I've been telling this story for 20 years and it's only getting worse the southern residents are not a very healthy population right now Lyn berry studies marine mammals for NOAA she believes these orcas face three main threats the same three threats they've been talking about for years a shortage of chinook salmon the mammals main prey pollution in the water and boat noise in your opinion is there one that's bigger than the rest all the threats are combined without abundance salmon the southern residents are starving when they can't eat they access their fat storage which is full of contaminants and with boat noise they have a harder time using echolocation to find what little salmon there is would you agree that it's these three no I disagree it's a divide and conquer strategy first of all in biology there's a principle of parsimony the idea that the most acceptable solution is the simplest you can add these other things but the simplest is the food and then triage you know what are you gonna treat first the food that's the one that's gonna solve the problem well recovery program has always been a comprehensive one and we want to go after all the threats but the population is not recovering increased salmon hatcheries voluntary no-go zones habitat restoration these have not resulted in more whales while experts don't always agree on the approach they do agree on this we don't save the Orca then we will have let down future generations Stephanie Selene co-chairs governor jay Inslee x' task force to save the southern residents last march the governor signed the executive order to form the group do i wish that there had been more political will and more action taken ten years ago 20 years ago 30 years ago i absolutely do and there were a lot of people sending those messages and the orcas are sending them to from Tahlequah store of grief to wasting away before our eyes the southern residents lost three whales in 2018 and researchers are still reeling the year started with hope that help was on the way commits the state of washington to real action for real recovery for a real treasure an executive order on Orca recovery and a team tasked with proposing life-saving solutions for southern residents nobody is on this to talk we're on this task force to take action to help the Orca but as they talked about what action to take researchers say an orca in our region is missing and presumed dead cruiser went missing from his pod a couple of months ago let's take a look at what this crisis looks like right now these photos were taken yesterday this is a mother swimming with her stillborn calf balancing on her head Jay 35 or Tahlequah the mother is still carrying her dead calf and it's something she's done now for 16 days another photo that is coming out right now of a young four-year-old that is starving hopefully something can be done has been heartbreaking to watch teams from the United States and from Canada have taken unprecedented action to medicate Jay 50 in the wild using dart injections we begin today with breaking news lead researchers have determined the Jay 50 the sick Orca calf is dead three orcas dead in as many months four scientists it was a summer of stress and sorrow I didn't realize how stressed and and really depressed I was until it was over talak was tragedy took the biggest toll for 17 days and more than a thousand miles she carried her dead calf on her head I felt like I had to document it every day but I felt like I was some sort of messenger of doom day after day on the water researchers left cursing and crying there were tears for me and just you know just kind of that nauseous feeling you get when you're just watching something you don't you didn't ever want to watch and as soon as the relief swept over them when they spotted her without her dead calf worry set in for the endeared three-year-old Scarlett wasting away spurred by public interest after Tahlequah the federal government took unprecedented action to save Scarlett but it didn't work she did and frustration set in down to 75 Wales time is running out we need to see growth we need to see better reproduction and we need to see a commitment from the people of Washington to make it happen well after an unimaginable brings hope with the birth of a new calf this little one here L 124 was spotted for the first time shortly after the new year Malcolm is calling it lucky for now and he hopes it is 40% of southern resident calves don't survive the first few years but it's doing well through the first few months just this week it was spotted again all the way down in Monterey Bay California Monterey Bay whale watch found l-pod foraging down there it's the first time the calf has been documented in two and a half months l 124 has been described as frisky energetic and most importantly healthy the same can't be said for two other orcas k 25 and j 17 now k 25 has shown dramatic weight loss since the loss of his mother researchers calling it a warning sign they've asked boaters to keep their distance while j17 Tahlequah his mother she started showing peanut-head in december it's a sign of starvation when areas around their head which should be full of fat sink in it was a telltale sign when j 50's death was imminent and j 17 is now showing it - this is what Balcom told me just a few weeks ago well I don't think there's a very good chance we'll see j17 again okay 25 we mine he wasn't quite as bad but if J 17 comes back that'll be one of these miracles well one of those miracles happen J 17 did come back a couple of weeks ago and looked a little healthier than when she left researchers are keeping a close eye on her and K 25 and they're ready to get health samples if given the chance all the while hoping this year is better than the last well coming up governor jay Inslee 'he's ambitious plans to save the southern residents i'm the governor who is the one who organized this effort and i've been fighting for this for several years and will continue to do so next we'll dive into the task force he created and the suggestions that they believe could become solutions for the endangered species and later it's arguably the most controversial solution breaching local dams how it could provide more salmon for the orcas but also cause people to lose their jobs [Music] it's been about one year since governor jay Inslee put pen to paper signing an executive order to form a task force to save our southern residents it was a tall order then and as we watch the population continue to suffer through the summer there is one word that truly describes what the task force was doing it was timely we follow the task force in its progress throughout the year and the state attending meetings in Lacey Wenatchee Anacortes and Tacoma and I asked tough questions to those tasked with making a real impact I think there's a myth that this is an impossible task the governor setting the bar at bold actions we're gonna make him as bold as we can for task force members with wide-ranging priorities from Orca and salmon scientists to tribes too far fishermen politicians and more there's a lot of different interest going on it's a very diverse group they're hoping that by putting everyone into the room they're going to be able to come up with something that the state legislature will get behind because that's a diverse group of people too and hopefully find a real solution science-based solutions with expert working groups focused on the three threats to Wales vessel noise contaminants and prey availability we've got all the science we need we got to make some political decisions that are tough with stakeholders at odds with what that looked like the public started applying pressure with protests public comment I think that we all know the things that we need to do and how urgent it is and petitions and I took those concerns straight to the top these measures that this task force is taking I've been reading the reports going through what sort of measures are being taken all of that is going to be great for the long term and for the overall health of the Salish Sea but really what these orca need our food and we need more than just hatchery salmon we need to find out how to restore the wild chinook salmon so that we aren't having to artificially feed these whales year after year so if the science points to breaching dams do you have what it takes to go up against tough bodies like Bonneville Power to make that happen I've had a long term and career and I have never been afraid of a good challenge to do the right thing but we again we need to work on improving the habitats throughout our system not just the Columbia River as the report came out two days ago that these chinook from urban rivers right in the central core of Puget Sound are very important to the Orcas we need to improve that habitat as well and yes I am look I'm the governor who is the one who organized this effort and I've been fighting for this for several years and will continue to do so I believe it's central to who we are as Washingtonians so I'm going to do that heavy lift you bet there mission-critical as three orcas die that summer these recommended actions could be the difference between survival and extinction it must be hard to be working behind the scenes and see these deaths but also my question is is this taskforce moving fast enough to save this species well I guess what I would say is that how timely this work is and of course the challenge that we've had is one that's been for decades in regard to the issues around the effects of contaminants in the sound and food for the workers themselves and we never would have imagined that it would play out so clearly the critical importance of being able to begin to take steps that effectively could make a difference is anything we're looking at perfect no but during the process even some task force members doubted the recommendations would do that the salmon habitat issue is not as strong as I would like to see the reality is the orcas are starving to death months of meetings came down to this Ballroom in Tacoma where members struggled to come to a consensus deciding which recommendations would make the final cut everyone has different ideas of what are bold but what we have in there now we know will make a difference but will it be enough to ensure future generations of orcas how do we know if they succeed if we can say this was a win for everyone that's a great question I asked them today you know what does that look like they want to see ten orcas added to this population in the next ten years but no sooner did those recommendations come out that experts started casting doubt good but not fold this set of recommendations on their own is not going to be enough to meet that goal of 10 new whales and time years and Rob who served as an expert on a task force working group is not the only one who thinks that but the work is not yet done it's on to your to now the group met for the first time in 2019 this past month I was there at the meeting as they broke down what this next phase looks like now there's still a lot of loose ends to tie up from last year including seeing a lot of those recommendations come to fruition but they're already setting their sights on even loftier goals like tackling climate change here in Washington State climate change means the temperatures are getting warmer the rain is getting heavier there's less snow and it's melting earlier and the sea level it's rising all of this will cause widespread changes to salmon habitat making it harder for salmon to survive and exacerbating the Orcas main problem their lack of food if we don't start preserving the environment today with the money we have today it's gonna cost Washington State in the nation millions of dollars billions of dollars down the road to clean up what we've left behind we can't just kick the can down the road when the Orcas are gone and wait for us to be next I think Washingtonians have heard that message it was a message sent to us by the orca that their survival depends on us the governor asked for 1 point 1 billion dollars in his budget to spend on Orca recovery the next two years the lion's share of that going toward restoring salmon habitat that we've spent years destroying as the legislature works out its budgets it's likely the governor will get just a fraction of what he's asking for it was a big ask in a state with a lot of other funding priorities the unfortunate thing is that whether the Chinook whether the Chinook survived and thrived whether the killer whales survive and thrive isn't negotiable when they don't have enough to eat we can't go to them and say well you know this session we have 50 million dollars I know it's going to take a hundred million dollars to create the food for you is that okay coming up a look at the bills that that task force created and whether they have the teeth to make a difference it's a big heavy lift to get these spills into place into law and part of the process is compromised its negotiation how the proposed laws could impact where both recreational boaters and whale watchers can go in local waters out of the governor's Orca task force work came three pieces of legislation that covered a number of recommendations these bills will change and create laws aimed at protecting the Orca its habitat and prey the first gives the southern residents more space on the water by keeping boats at bay the task force and governor proposed suspending whale watching around southern residents they also asked to double the current no-go zone around them from 200 to 400 yards legislators scrapped the suspension and split the difference on that protective bubble settling at 300 yards it's a compromise that didn't sit well with some I've gotten some some real negative email and voicemails about not holding firm on that moratorium about changing the protective bubble of no-go zone but a compromise austin says that helped keep the bill alive and with bipartisan support it's a big heavy lift to get these these bills into place into law and part of the process is compromise its negotiation we don't necessarily come out with a perfectly drafted bill that's gonna get to everything but we do our best still holding strong a slow-speed zone within 1/2 nautical mile of the whales and directing the state to start licensing and regulating the currently unregulated whale watch industry it's an industry that's on board with these changes one of the aspects of the vessel bill that were most pleased with the most excited about in terms of quieting the waters for the southern residents is the slow speed zone for all voters the next piece of legislation deals with safely moving oil amongst orcas recent history shows us what an oil spill can do the killer whale pods caught in the Exxon Valdez oil spill are still devastated 30 years later one pod now functionally extinct to keep it from happening here this legislation requires more oil tankers in Washington to have tug escorts through Orca habitat the final bill mainly focuses on our shorelines shoreline armoring like bulkheads it can cause significant harm to fish life it removes that habitat for forage fish to spawn and chinook salmon need that forage fish to eat this bill gives the Department of Fish and Wildlife authority to serve stop work orders for shoreline projects that violate the rules even on private property it also increases civil penalties when those projects are not to code up to ten thousand dollars for each violation and for the people who say well this is my property and I should be able to do what I want on it if you're building a seawall onto a public resource which is a forage fish fed that is a problem for everybody so I would just come back and say this is a shared resource our salmon our Birds our seals our orcas all depend on this habitat we need to be need to take care of it they can legislate away but can they fund it if the Department of Fish and Wildlife is not fully funded first it could struggle to find the resources to enforce any new rules the Battle of her budget will be a big part of any legislative story coming up could the first step to saving our orcas be breaching dams hundreds of thousands of people seem to think so but it comes with controversy breach the dams it's not difficult they would devastate it I mean it would basically end my livelihood next how many chinook salmon died through the dams before ever reaching the Columbia River [Music] plus the boat noise that's making it even harder to find the fish that are left what's being done to limit the loud waterways and what will make it worse it is the most talked-about action item during public comment at any southern resident Orca task force meeting while there's no one solution to saving the orcas from extinction hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions telling government where they'd like it to start that's by breaching four dams along the lower Snake River in eastern Washington southern resident killer whales are starving in the Salish Sea they're simply not enough chinook salmon the whales primary food source some believe the answer is 300 miles away a rallying cry to free the snake breach the dams it's not difficult the dams are four massive structures along the lower Snake River in eastern Washington in them Orca champions see the death of crucial salmon habitat damming those rivers up and preventing access to their spawning grounds was the coop do grass for chinook salmon without them some in Eastern Washington say their way of life could wash away it would devastate it I mean it would basically end my livelihood the Columbia snake river system is a 465 mile River Highway that makes Lewiston Idaho a seaport in 2014 nearly 10 percent of all US wheat exports moved on barges through the Snake River dams we feed the world in the Pacific Northwest and I think it's fairly important for those farmers to keep the dams and keep their River highway the dams also turn out about 5% of power needed in the Pacific Northwest the surplus hydropower is sold out of the region to states like California Bonneville Power Administration markets that energy an agency currently strapped because of new renewable energy sources in a boom in natural gas which keep prices low and competition for customers hi there is no comparable source of firm reliable power available that delivers the same value at anywhere near the cost of the federal Columbia River hydroelectricity system but that system is home to 13 species of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act a federal mandate to protect and recover the four dams on the lower Snake River have been in the crosshairs of salmon advocates for years I think that removing the four lowest nuclear dams is that is the most beneficial thing we can do to protect salmon from extinction the plight of the orcas has invigorated the cause last summer NOAA Fisheries ranked the most important chinook stocks for the critically endangered Orca five of the top ten come from the Columbian Snake rivers the same rivers that serve as the largest provider for power in the Pacific Northwest there is a balance dams and fish can coexist the dams have proved detrimental to fish passage the federal government has poured in billions to improve it at ice Harbor Dam project manager Tim Roberts shows me the results a fish ladder a roughly 24 hour climb for adult fish heading upstream to spawn a bypass to cut off juvenile fish headed straight for the turbines so you can hear the water coming in there so the fish would be diverted into this slide so it just eventually takes them around and bypass them around the structure and new turbines being installed for the fish that do slip through its distributing the pressure across the entire blade so there's not pockets of high pressure and low pressure the fish would be subjected to is the ice Harbor dam doing enough to preserve the endangered fish that are in the system yeah you bet we've over the last 20 years that I've worked for the Corps we've continued to make improvements throughout those 20 years but is it enough I analyzed the most recent data from the Army Corps of Engineers on juvenile chinook survival through each of the four lower Snake River dams only taking into account the danger of passing each dam my analysis showed 29 percent of sub yearling Chinook will die before reaching the Columbia River that's mostly fall chinook the fifth highest priority stock for Orca according to NOAA yearling chinook mainly spring stock lost just 13% through the first four dams the other mortality though it's just as significant and maybe more is the reservoir mortality due to predation temperature and gas Jim Waddell is a retired civil engineer who worked for the Army Corps when they considered breaching the dams about 20 years ago we're in a situation now where so dire we're saying you got a breach two dams starting you know this winter this winter construction season Waddell says it's possible the Corps says otherwise so point-blank could this facility be shut down this year no it's a fight that will most likely drag out in court a federal judge ordered the dam managers to look at the environmental impacts of these structures and again consider the benefits of breaching it's a study that will cost around 81 million dollars the final report due in 2020 a decision dam breaching advocates believe will come too late to save the Orca we've got maybe at most five more years of reproductive life in this population to make it happen and if we don't do it in that five years they didn't gonna happen and even if that decision does go their way they'll still have Congress to overcome I think there's way more benefit than there is deficit from having the dams in place and I think the investments we have made in mitigating that for the presence of the dams have been very successful so will you fight it I will congressman Dan Newhouse and congresswoman cathy McMorris Rogers are two prominent voices against dam breaching the dams are in their districts and as this is a federal decision they have a lot of say the real determination though comes down to that court ordered environmental impact statement or EIS it's similar to the study that was done about 20 years ago that study found dam breaching had the highest probability of fish recovery but the Corps instead opted to make major dam improvements in part because that option had minimal economic impacts especially for those who use the river to get their product to market but the economic landscape is changing since the start of that first study in 1995 total tonnage shipped on the Snake River has dropped 50 percent but that fact doesn't matter for the wheat growers who still rely on it touting cheap transportation costs and fewer trucks on the road I do think the people that are like damn damn damn damn let's take them down I'm not sure are you listening are you wanting to listen the federal agency studying the issue will take these voices into account just like it did the last time I sat down with recently retired Army Corps fish biologist Chris Penney he worked on the original study and was part of this current analysis before retiring to you what was the purpose of the judges request for the CIS Oh to take a hard look at fish effects you know and for a range of alternatives that includes includes breaching and is it doing that I think ultimately it's not gonna do that no I think it'll be status quo I think it'll be keep studying it and delay and delay and delaying until when or a tree fish until you don't have any wild fish left or you don't have any fish the Army Corps of Engineers assured me the agencies are analyzing breaching as an alternative in part because the court ordered it but also because of the robust public input that made it clear people want this to be considered we should see the draft report next February now closer to home there's about half a billion dollars worth of Army Corps projects the Congress already authorized that will help fish passage in habitat but over the two years the agency has received less than one percent of the funding needed to make it happen these projects sit there shovel-ready like dozens of others in the Puget Sound from lower rivers to estuaries to shorelines long live the Kings Jacques White tells me things here could be a lot better in the Snake River dams what they think is a crisis in terms of spring chinook recovery is or survival is a smoke to adult ratio of about 1.4 which is less than recovery levels correct so that's that's a problem for them but our smoke to adult ratios here in Puget Sound for chinook whether it's hatchery fish or wild fish is about 0.4 to 0.6 so it's about half of what they're seeing or less so we have a real crisis here too some of the things that we need to do here are to address some of the problems on our soil lines to address some of the problems with our hatcheries to address some of the challenges we have with predators in the environment and to address some problems we have with contamination in our lower rivers in our base it's a laundry list yeah it is it really is we're walking here on the shoreline of the Alki point we see the seawall here we see you know the big rocks and homes built right up to the water what concerns you about the structures that we have here in our shorelines yeah well so here in Puget Sound we have about 700 miles of this shoreline armoring that we see behind us here this is a problem because if it's built right on top of where forage fish are the main food resource for salmon and seals and other animals are spawning then those fish won't be successful and we'll have less food in the environment for our salmon for our seals and for birds and other animals like if you look down the beach that way you can see that that there's very coarse sediment and in fact the water is already up to the seawall that's right on top of where forage fish would be spawning and so that's no longer a good habitat for forage fish and how much of the Puget Sound looks like that about a third of it coming up a classic hobby for many of us in the Puget Sound that could be putting the whales in danger but then those whales showed up right where that would have been if they didn't change direction what's being done to give resident orcas the room they need while not taking too much away from boaters Plus how the local waters are poisoning the southern residents and what you can do in your everyday life to help it looks pretty peaceful but Puget Sound is a noisy place very noisy and that sound travels faster louder and farther in the water than in the air Scott veers is the coordinator for the Orcas sound hydrophone network that's that clickety clackety sends a hydrophone is an underwater microphone and we humans started listening to Puget Sound for whale calls on dark and foggy days when they couldn't find them visually but quickly discovered that wasn't the only show in town we found that ships were really dominating the soundscape and the noise from ships was present most of the day that's a big problem for the southern resident killer whale that hunts fish with sounds they sound out a click through the their forehead and expect it to bounce off of a Chinook 10 maybe 50 or 100 feet away and then listen to the echo from that little fish and from 20 to 30 giant container ships that enter Puget Sound daily to the more regular ferries that go back and forth many make noise louder and at the same pitch whales used to hunt there were abundant salmon which we wish there were here in Washington the noise might not be a big issue but when salmon is scarce which they are currently particularly the chinook salmon that the killer whales love noise is probably quite important and noise is something the southern resident workers they can't escape they are surrounded by container ships oil tankers ferries whale watchers private boaters fishermen you name it the waters are busy and they're loud as you just heard and it could get worse first nations and tribes have been at the forefront of the fight against expanding the trans mountain oil pipeline from Alberta to the coast in fact Washington tribes traveled to Canada to testify on behalf of the orcas Canada's National Energy Board found that the increase in marine traffic from the proposed expansion would harm the endangered southern resident orcas significantly increased greenhouse gas emissions and in a worst case scenario an oil spill would threaten the environment and the orcas lives still they approved it saying it's in the public's best interest the project will triple the amount of oil Canada can ship each day but neither affected coastal region British Columbia or Washington are on board the state of Washington stands with I believe the people of British Columbia expressing concerns about this project I understand that the concerns of indigenous communities self at the border and I understand intimately the concerns of those above the border but that border as I said means nothing when it comes to the catastrophic consequences of a diluted bitumen spill in our marine environment which is a shared environment now oil spills are catastrophic but also a worst-case scenario the everyday impact is going to be noise in its report the anyb admitted that yes oil tankers would make it noisier for the whales but they think we should be looking instead at ferries and whale watch boats of course that's already the case let's take a look at ferries the back and forth trips every day do create constant noise and the governor wants to spend more than a hundred million dollars to build two new battery-powered ferries and convert to others to electric and while getting ferries off diesel is a good thing none of those four ferries would operate in the San Juan Islands where the orcas are most frequently near ferries the whale watch industry is facing changes as well now they won't be banned from watching Southern residents I'm told not a single Washington legislator would support a suspension but new legislation would still scoot them back another hundred yards and could regulate how many boats are around a group of residents at any given time I recently went on a whale watch tour with the president of the pacific whale watch association and asked him why they fought so hard against a suspension given their really precarious state why not just leave them be if you will well I think I think again I think there there are some risks of us not being there and I think we lose some value of us not being able to connect people with their story we probably should just be leaving them alone I think when you do put face to a to an animal it's then it impacts you a bit for hundreds of thousands of people each year ago whale watching in the Pacific Northwest the whale watch fleet has multiplied over decades but actually it's the recreational boaters that are a bigger problem in the sound they consistently break more rules around the southern residents than any other group on the water in fact enforcement tells me it's usually the whale watchers who are the role models on the water showing other boats by example what a safe distances and encouraging them to slow down now while the state looks to create new laws on the water the ability to enforce those laws is a real issue you're about to see why with your own eyes it's a conversation Taylor shed has hundreds of times each summer where a sound watch part of the whale Museum here on San Juan Island and we're just out here doing boater education it's fun to let you know that there are some actual transient whales right here in front of you reaching thousands of recreational boaters with this message so I'm sure you guys are familiar with the regulations it's 200 yards around 400 in front and we're asking that for a guideline that we stay under 7 knots within a half mile of the whales but in 2017 sound watch data shows just 31 percent of recreational boaters knew the rules perfect I have a brochure for you to have that brochure contains this map and a list of bewail wise guidelines but most of it including slow speed zones are merely suggestions hey guys doing good nope and not everybody wants to hear it reinforcements I can't ask people to stop stop what you're doing you know kind of thing we can only do education and run interference be careful I'm going to get this boat win boaters cut through the bubble of whale watch boats and right over the backs of whales sometimes forcing sound watch into the bubble to cut them off all I have to do is turn broadside and show them that says sound watch and see the flags but he turned just in time sound watch shutdown as two humpback whales come to the surface but then those whales showed up right where that boat would have been if they didn't change direction so you know that's what we do is we mitigate risk away from the whales that risk is much greater when enforcement is not around Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife police's the waters but incidents against whales spike across all vessel types when they are not on scene the biggest change in behavior comes from recreational boats and Canadian whale watch boats there are major gaps that we need to try and fill Russ Mullins is a sergeant with WDFW on a typical summer day they have one boat out patrolling roughly eight hours but a day watching whales can last twice as long we need to be aggressive at this point and more enforcement assets on the water are very important because it's like the trooper in the median even people that aren't speeding still attendants have a tendency to slow down but more enforcement and education takes more funding for WDFW and for sound watch it's a point Mullins communicates to the governor's Orca task force members he has on board the task force recommended stronger boater rules to keep southern residents safe my concern is that these actions and all these resources are being put into reinventing the wheel when a lot of that already exists and is already being educated educated but not enforced they are guidelines so you're right they're not enforceable if they were to become law then they could be enforceable which would be much better but only if they have the resources to do it still ahead poison in our local waters is hurting our southern residents if we change our individual actions like hopefully we'll get around to changing society some of the simple changes you can make in your everyday life that will help save the dying species we've talked extensively about two of the three main threats to southern resident killer whales lack of food and vessel disturbance it's the third threat pollution that often goes overlooked but we learned from experts that while pollution may be the hardest problem to solve it's actually the one where you can help the orcas in your everyday life look at the sound on any sunny day and you might think it's one of the cleanest waterways in the world but anybody who's lived here long enough could tell you different from municipal and Navy sewage any leakage in the Puget Sound on us that is not authorized is unacceptable to stormwater and how we wash our cars it all makes its way to the place the southern residents call home materials that hurt the Orcas are classified as pops4 sistent organic pollutants these chemicals do not break down easily and they get stored in animals fat Threepio peas occur most commonly in southern residents PCBs a lubricant that was widely used in electrical equipment before being banned PBDEs used as flame retardants in buildings cars and planes and DDT's a pesticide that was commonly used for farming these chemicals travel far and wide they go into the waterways and into the fish orcas eat Deborah Giles an orca biologist says the impacts to the whales are wide ranging from suppressing their immune systems to poisoning the unborn firstborn offspring get almost a hundred percent of the toxicants that have been stored in the moms body through her entire life so often those first babies don't live and when they do live what we're seeing these calves are smaller than they used to be it's so prevalent that when an orca dies scientists can tell which pond it came from by testing pollutants in the fat l-pod absorbs more agricultural products because they spend much of their winter off the California coast while j-pod which frequents the Puget Sound more is full of flame retardants Giles says Washington uses more of that than neighboring states these impacts might sound out of our control as individuals but the chemicals that still persist come from products we use every day there's so many eco-friendly things that you can do instead of washing your car in your driveway go to a car wash where they filter the runoff same goes for changing your oil treating your lawn use as few chemicals as possible it may take policymakers to control sewage treatment plants and industrial agriculture but if we change our individual actions like hopefully we'll get around to changing society every little thing can help truly we all play a part now I've been contemplating for some time the possibility of the southern resident orcas going extinct I wonder why we care so much about this one species and then someone in Vancouver helped me realize what it is the southern residents would be one of if not the first species to go extinct where we know every individual by name with those names come connections we know each orcas story we relate we grieve with Tahlequah and think about what it would be like to lose our own child some of you know how that feels and you empathize even more and a three and a half year old Orca didn't die last summer scarlet did a rambunctious calf who beat the odds for years after a difficult birth a little smaller than normal but always spunky putting on a show until she was too thin too sick to go on the tribes say the southern resident orcas are their relatives I marvel at that connection and I hear from all of you on social media about how these individual orcas become a part of your family and your story Jacqueline from Virginia adopted joy for her daughter they were born the same year Vicki Doyle tells me she adopted granny the year she became a grandmother Alyson waters says she feels a strong connection to onyx because he lost a parent she relates to that and Shanna knew will draw strength and inspiration from toketee who has survived nearly five decades in a pool at Miami Seaquarium the pictures and the paintings behind me those are your pictures your memories that you sent me of seeing these magnificent mammals up close and we want them to be here so future generations can experience that too as a journalist it's my job to hold those in power accountable to ensure they are doing what it takes to save the southern residents preserving this species is a federal mandate what can you do as a citizen you can contact your state legislators as they finalize this year's budget you can give public comment for federal and state projects and you can keep fighting to keep these southern residents from becoming the last generation [Music] if you'd like to learn more about our southern resident orcas download part one of our Orca podcast series it's available on q13 fox comm or itunes stitcher or any other podcast platform just search q13 news orca podcast

Channel: FOX 13 Seattle

Views: 11,522

Keywords: environment, orcas, killer whales, oceans, animals, climate change, science, news, pollution, fish, salmon, dams, pacific ocean, washington state, seattle, earth, extinction, endangered species, puget sound, salish sea

Id: muXBWvarDrQ

Length: 48min 0sec (2880 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2019