"Canaries of the Sound"
By Katie Mathis

An indicator species makes the endangered list

An elderly mother and her companions are preparing for a northbound journey through frigid and choppy seas. The group is comfortable with one another’s company; they have embarked on this same annual voyage from Southern California to Northern British Columbia together since childhood. The elderly mother, called Granny, is an orca estimated to be in her late 80s, and her companions are the members of her pod. Scientists believe a middle-age male in the pod, called Ruffles, is Granny’s son. Many members of the three pods that comprise the southern resident orca population of Puget Sound have been inhabitants of the Northwest longer than most people. During their years of travel through the sound, they have experienced oil spills, depleted chinook and coho runs, and the drone of boat traffic and the tangle of nets from theme park and aquarium captures in the 1960s.

Starting in 1996, a range of factors led to a 20 percent decline in the Puget Sound orca population, said Ken Balcomb III, research biologist and executive director of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor. By July 2005, the southern resident population had dropped to 90. The decrease in numbers led the Center for Biological Diversity to spearhead a petition to classify the three pods — J, K and L — as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, offering the whales the highest level of protection. On Nov. 15, the work of environmental organizations, biologists, lawyers and concerned citizens earned its reward when the National Marine and Fisheries Service listed the southern resident orcas as endangered.

The process began in May 2001, when the Center for Biological Diversity, along with 11 other environmental organizations, presented a petition to the NMFS to consider the orcas for an ESA listing.

"Whenever we receive a petition, we put together a biological review team to make a recommendation to us," said Brian Gorman, NMFS spokesman. "They make a determination of what the population is and where it is going."

Balcomb said the Center for Whale Research provided the NMFS with updated census information on the whales. After an initial assessment, the review team found the southern residents were not a significant segment of the population and did not warrant listing as an endangered species, Gorman said. The term "significance," as it is used in the act, means that if the southern resident community disappeared, it would not affect the global orca population.

The NMFS instead designated the orcas as a depleted species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which shields marine species from hunting, killing, harassment or capture, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Web site. When classified as depleted, the orcas received limited protection because the standards under this act are weaker than under the ESA, Gorman said.

Earthjustice and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the NMFS in December 2002 to challenge the findings of the review team in court. The next year, a District Court judge ordered a second study of the whales.

"We went back to the drawing board with the biological review team," said Lynne Barre, a NMFS biologist. "We looked at southern resident killer whales as distinct from others."

Barre said once the NMFS looked at the ecological setting of the southern residents, it was easy to classify them as significant.

Southern residents demonstrate a preference for Puget Sound, spending nearly half their year in its waters; transient orca pods, in contrast, pass through the region and show little attachment to the sound.

"Their range is quite different — this is their core area," Balcomb said.

The southern resident orcas’ range extends as far south as Monterey, Calif., and as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia; they can travel as far as 75 miles each day, Balcomb said.

And their diet differs from other orcas, too. Southern residents do not eat seals and other larger mammals, but instead rely on salmon and other fish as their primary food source. Also, resident orcas have been observed participating in greeting ceremonies, which other orca pods have not been known to do, Barre said.

Balcomb said if the southern residents were to become extinct it would disturb the natural balance of Puget Sound. Because orcas are some of the largest mammals in Puget Sound, they are high on the food chain and are an important indicator species of the health of the rest of the system, he said. Each pod or group of pods occupies a certain area; the loss of southern residents also would alter the range of other pods.

Because of the orcas’ classification as endangered, the NMFS is now required to produce a recovery plan. Although the plan does not have a deadline for completion, it is likely to be ready by the middle of this year, Gorman said. A recovery plan is simply a guidebook for the actions people should take to protect the whales. The recovery plan therefore is effective only if everyone does his or her part, said John Dohrmann, director of government affairs for the Puget Sound Action Team.

Gorman said three issues the recovery plan is likely to address are boat traffic in the sound, salmon population decline in the region, and pollution and toxins in the fish the orcas consume. He said the NMFS first must concentrate on research because much remains unknown about the orcas, such as where they go and what they eat when they leave Puget Sound. Thus far, scientists do not know what types of contaminants, food shortages and human disturbances affect the whales when they leave state waters.

"We know their names, we know their mother’s names, we’ve been tracking them for generations. But here we are in February and we don’t know where they are," Dohrmann said.

Recovering the orca population will be difficult, since more than one issue affects the orcas’ health, said Kathy Fletcher, executive director of People for Puget Sound, a citizens’ advocacy group. Runoff from streets, gardens and yards is the biggest source of pollution, a problem compounded by the Pacific Northwest’s growing human population. Fletcher said toxic chemicals are still present in the waters of the sound from past cases of dumping.

"The water is an alphabet soup of toxins, from PCBs to PAHs," Fletcher said, referring to chemicals once used in electrical equipment and in industrial plants, respectively. Neither breaks down to harmless levels easily or immediately.

Fletcher said the orca population decline is also correlated with a string of low salmon years; salmon are the preferred food source for southern residents. Balcomb said the key element to improving the southern resident population is to enhance wild salmon populations because salmon from fish farms and hatcheries arenot sufficient.

During a food shortage, the orcas metabolize their blubber, where the toxins and chemicals are stored. As the whales live off this fat, dangerous levels of contaminants can enter their bloodstream and breast milk. Tainted breast milk might be one factor in low survival rates of orca calves. Orcas are reproducing, but the calves are not surviving.

"Four babies were born in the last year. One of them is certainly gone," Balcomb said. "The first year is a tough year for them."

More help might come from Gov. Christine Gregoire, who has supported several salmon recovery programs in Washington. On Jan. 11, Gregoire presented a $26.6 million grant to 28 counties in the state to help restore salmon populations; Whatcom County received $1.2 million.

Balcomb said he believes those who want orcas to remain a part of Washington for generations should limit their use of fuels and toxic chemicals. It is always better, he said, to act late than not at all.

"Unless we make some changes, we’re probably not going to see them in five human generations," Balcomb said. "Their time to extinction is calculable."