FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

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CONSERVING THE POPULATION OF ORCAS IN THE SOUTHERN PARTS OF PUGET SOUND 

Since 1995 the southern, resident killer-whale (orca) population of Puget Sound has declined by 20 percent so that now only 79 of them survive. The outlook for the long-term survival of this population is bleak.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has recently decided not to list this population as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act, but, instead, to list it as "depleted," a category that does not provide protection against the most significant threats to the future welfare of this population and increase in its size ("depleted" status only addresses problems of bycatch and subsistence hunting under the Marine Mammal Protection Act).

Several reasons exist for this decline: past live captures for the entertainment industry (today each orca is worth one million dollars); record-high levels of toxins such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their flesh; reduction of their prey species by overfishing (permitted by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)); excessive noise from vessels of all types; and whale watching vessels and others that may approach too closely.

    The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs recommends that:

    1. The Governor of the State of Washington seek to establish and vigorously enforce limitations on the release of toxic effluents into Puget Sound;

    2. The National Marine Fisheries Service reconsider its decision on the status of this population of orcas and give it "endangered" status under the Endangered Species Act;
   
    3. The National Marine Fisheries Service enforce the most rigorous regulations on commercial and sport fisheries to ensure a supply of fish that would be available to orcas and other marine life dependent on them;

    4. Ships of all kinds be required by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the State of Washington to strictly observe present regulations by NMFS that limit how closely vessels may approach orcas and other whales; those restrictions should be vigorously enforced;

    5. The federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) establish and enforce acceptable noise levels in the marine environment.

Contact: Gov. Gary Locke, P.O.Box 40002, Legislative Bldg., Olympia, WA 98504 Hon. Donald Evans, Sec. of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20230. Urge the Secretary to review the case to provide the most effective protections under the Endangered Species Act that this population of orcas deserves because of its low population and doubtful ability to reproduce in order to increase its population in face of the threats to its environment.