Your Vancouver Province
Orca report confirms their failure to survive, lists recommendations
Elaine O'Connor, The Province
Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Environmentalists hope a new strategy to help restore B.C.'s killer whale population will help slow the decline of the threatened orcas.

The federal report for northern and southern resident killer whales confirms their failure to thrive and makes recommendations for improving their chances of survival.

The southern clan was listed as endangered with 85 members and the northern clan as threatened with 205 members as of 2003.

"Resident killer whale populations in British Columbia are presently considered to be at risk because of their small population size, low reproductive rate and the existence of a variety of . . . threats that have the potential to prevent recovery or to cause further declines," the report states.

Key threats are pollution, reduction in prey (chinook and chum salmon) and damage from boats, sonar and noise.

"If we are going to save these species we need to learn more about them," said Christianne Wilhelmson of the Georgia Strait Alliance.

She praised the report for identifying and advising the protection of critical habitats, but was frustrated that it was delayed for over a year, stalling action on the issue. She stressed that municipalities need to start improving their waste-water treatment and the government needs to protect salmon stocks if the orca are to recover.

Volker Deecke, an orca expert and research associate in the University of B.C.'s Marine Mammal Research Unit, said noise pollution is a serious threat.

"Killer whales rely on sound to find their food. Background noise reduces the distance over which they can hear their clicks, so it effectively blinds them. Shipping noise, industrial noise from drilling, on top of that you have sounds that can be potentially lethal or at least debilitating," he said, citing air guns used in oil exploration, military sonar and loud tanker engines.

Even if damage doesn't escalate, it will take 25 years for the population to recover, the report states. Females produce one calf every five to six years within a 25-year fertility window. Females live for an average of 50 years and males 30.