SEATTLE — U.S. officials are considering whether new fishing restrictions are necessary to help prevent the extinction of endangered killer whales that frequent Puget Sound.
The Seattle Times reports that new evidence of the fish the whales depend on and the risk posed to orcas by depleted prey has caused the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to write a letter of guidance to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
The letter says NOAA is examining whether new restrictions are needed on prey orcas eat — particularly on fisheries in the Lower Columbia and Sacramento River and on fall-run chinook salmon in the Klamath River.
NOAA in 2009 concluded fisheries did not jeopardize the survival and recovery of killer whales. Now they are reconsidering that stance.
The Southern Resident killer whales population has been struggling for years.
Now there are only 74 whales left in the Southern Resident killer whale population and there are only nine reproductive females in J-Pod. In L-Pod, there are no whales that are really reproductively capable.
"Without reproduction, there is no chance of survival," said Ken Balcomb, the founder of the Center for Whale Research. "This is what extinction looks like in slow motion."
Governor Jay Inslee's Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Task Force pitched $1.1 billion in orca-related funding earlier this year. Efforts to save them include the removal of river dams, a ban on commercial whale watching, salmon habitat protection and restoration, among others.