Seattle Times staff reporter

First, the orcas may be the most intelligent animals on the planet after us. The pods here have remained in family groups for who knows how long–hundreds of years? Very possibly their family lineages go back thousands of years. Some of these whales being chased daily are 80 and 90 years old. Can we not allow them even ONE SMALL SPACE which they can have to themselves? Humans are the most self-centered monsters. Eighty-five animals in a population is on the brink of extinction. We have something here that is really magical and special, that’s obvious. Let’s make sure we don’t love them to death, or put our profit over their lives. Let them have a space where they can rest with their babies and play without the sounds of boat engines following them.It’s the least we can do–show these incredible sentient beings some respect instead of treating them like a circus or commodity that solely exists for our pleasure.

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The Center for Whale Research has shared the results of their 2010 summer Orca Survey, with the sad news that we have lost 3 adult orcas and one calf this year.

Missing and presumed dead are:
L114, new calf born to L77 in February 2010, missing when the whales returned in June.
L73/Flash, a male born in 1986, missing summer 2010.
L74/Saanich, a male also born in 1986, missing summer 2010.
K11/Georgia, a female estimated to be born in 1933, last observed in May 2010.

This brings the population of the Southern Resident orca community to about 87 individuals. J pod has 28 members; K pod has 19; and L pod has 40, including (approximately):
~9 post-reproductive females (over 40 years old)
~25 adult females (12-40 years old)
~19 mature or adolescent males (over 12 years old)
~21 juveniles (5-12 years old)
~13 calves (0-4 years old)

By Sue Ellen White

 Examiner Staff Writer

“You could hear the whales squealing when they pulled them out,” Stone said. “It drove my cat crazy.”

Working a summer job at the Captain Whidbey Inn, Stone became an intimate witness to an infamous event: the 1970 capture of orca whales in Penn Cove by entrepreneurs engaged in the then-legal business of selling the wild marine mammals to aquariums and theme parks.

Stone transported newspaperman Wally Funk out to the whale hunters’ raft to photograph the capture. His parents owned the inn and the site where the whales were trapped was just a third of a mile away.

“My gut reaction was this was the wrong thing to do,” he said. “I was not alone, but I was not in the majority. These were ‘killer whales.’”

On Aug. 8, 1970, Stone was scheduled to work the evening shift in the restaurant, but was off during the day. He remembers the noise, airplanes and high-speed boats that arrived in the cove, driving about 90 whales before them.

It was a superpod of the combined family groups or pods, named “J,” “K” and “L,” belonging to the Southern Resident orcas whose home range is the Salish Sea. The area encompasses Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits in Northwest Washington and British Columbia’s Gulf Islands and Georgia Strait.

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• Oil, grease, metals and coolants from vehicles;
• Fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals from gardens and homes;
• Bacteria from pet wastes and failing septic systems;
• Soil from construction sites and other bare ground;
• Soaps from car or equipment washing; and
• Accidental spills, leaky storage containers, tobacco spit and whatever else ends up on the ground.

The polluted runoff then rushes into nearby gutters and storm drains and into Puget Sound’s streams, lakes, rivers and bays. In most areas, stormwater runoff enters these waters without being cleaned of pollutants.

Why is stormwater a problem?

Across the U.S., unmanaged stormwater runoff has caused serious damage to streams, lakes and estuaries, particularly where land uses change from rural to urban activities. It is taking its toll in Puget Sound, too. In Washington state, stormwater pollution contributes to 30 percent of the pollution in waters with some pollution problems. Most of the four million people who live in the Sound region contribute to stormwater pollution every day.

The Washington Department of Ecology estimates that one-third of all the polluted waters in the state are polluted by stormwater runoff. Stormwater pollution has contributed to closing thousands of acres of productive shellfish growing beaches. Stormwater runoff can also close swimming beaches and contaminate drinking water supplies.

Poorly managed stormwater causes three big problems:

• Pollution from stormwater contaminates our waters, closes local businesses, and harms or kills fish and other wildlife. As stormwater passes over developed land, it picks up pollutants and transports them to the nearest storm drain and eventually Puget Sound’s rivers and bays.
• Flooding harms streams and wetlands and destroys habitat needed for fish and other wildlife. Unable to soak into the ground, stormwater quickly flows or floods downstream from developed land during the rainy season. As a result, floods can damage homes and businesses, flood septic system drain fields and overwhelm streams, wetlands and wildlife habitat.
• Water shortages in growing communities may occur, especially in developed areas with impervious surfaces or areas where water cannot filtrate through, such as roads, parking lots and rooftops. The impervious surfaces keep rainfall from soaking into the ground and replenishing groundwater and streams used for drinking water or fish habitat.

What can you do?

A pollution permit or a treatment plant can’t solve stormwater pollution, because stormwater runoff comes from small, individual sources in all parts of the watershed. It is a problem that everyone plays a part in solving. It is a problem that residents can change by stopping small, individual activities that cause pollution and result in large-scale pollution. It is a problem that communities can manage to prevent stormwater runoff as development takes place.

You can do a lot to help minimize stormwater problems

Start with doing one of the actions on the following top 10 list:

1. Maintain your car or truck. Never dump anything down a storm drain. Always recycle used oil, antifreeze and other fluids. Fix oil leaks in your vehicles.
2. Wash your car at a commercial car wash rather than in the street or in your driveway. If you wash your car at home, wash it on your lawn.
3. Drive less. Leave your car at home at least one day each week and take a bus, carpool or bike to work. Combine errands when you drive. Get vehicle emissions checked and repaired. Buy a low emission vehicle.
4. Cut down on fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. If you use these chemicals, follow directions and use them sparingly. Don’t fertilize before a rainstorm. Consider using organic fertilizers. Let your lawn go golden brown in the summer months; it will rebound in the fall. Compost or mulch lawn clippings. Preserve existing trees or plant new ones – trees hold rainfall and help manage stormwater.
5. Remove part or all of your lawn. Lawns require a lot of watering, mowing and caring. Replace part of your lawn with native, drought-resistant plants. Add compost to planting soil and dress it with mulch to improve plant growth and reduce stormwater runoff.
6. If you are on a septic system, maintain the system. Septic systems require regular inspections, maintenance and pumping, or they will fail, cost a lot of money to fix and could pollute nearby lakes and streams. Have a professional inspector check your system regularly and have it pumped out when needed.
7. Pick up after your pets and keep animals out of streams. Scoop your dog’s poop and properly dispose of it. Also, make sure fences and other structures are keeping cows, horses and other animals out of streams. Compost manure in a designated area so that it doesn’t wash off into nearby waterways.
8. Reduce impervious surfaces at home and increase the vegetated land cover of your property. Impervious surfaces include your roof, driveway, patios and lawn. Reduce rooftop runoff by directing your downspouts to vegetated areas, and not to the storm drain on your street. For your driveway and patios, consider putting in permeable paving or patterns of cement and brick that allow water to filter through it.
9. Support your local storm or surface water program. Programs to maintain a community’s stormwater system, prevent flooding and protect natural resources may cost money in the short run but save money for damages to public and private property in the long term. Take advantage of opportunities to educate yourself and your family about your local watershed. Consider volunteering for stream restoration or other local volunteer projects.
10. Make smart growth choices. Choose to live in a neighborhood that provides you with all conveniences- low maintenance homes and lawns, nearby shopping, walking paths, easy-access to buses and trains, and green, open spaces to enjoy.

Fascinating facts

Pollution:

• Pollution from stormwater sources in waters polluted in Washington state: one-third
• Number of pesticides found in Puget Sound streams during rainstorms: 23
• Number of the pesticides found in Puget Sound streams with concentrations higher than levels that protect aquatic life: five
• Gallons of treated wastewater discharged in the Puget Sound region each day: 675,000,000
• Gallons of stormwater runoff from a 1,200 square foot roof, after one inch of rain: 748
• Gallons of stormwater runoff from a one-acre parking lot, after one inch of rain: 27,000

Shellfish:

• Nation’s leading commercial producer of oysters, clams and mussels: Washington
• Average annual sales of oysters, mussels and clams, including geoducks: more than $100 million
• Significant industry in Washington’s coastal counties: shellfish growing
• Mason County’s top private employers: forestry and shellfish growing
• Since 1980, number of Puget Sound’s 140,000 acres of commercial, certified shellfish growing areas closed or partially closed for harvesting because the water was polluted and the shellfish unhealthy to eat: 45,000

Salmon:

• Amount of all salmon and steelhead stocks in Puget Sound considered healthy: Less than half
• Percent of estuary miles assessed statewide with temperatures exceeding state water quality standards: 65 percent
• Percent of stream miles assessed in the Puget Sound lowlands that exceeded state water quality standards for fecal coliform bacteria: 57 percent
• Percent of Coho salmon, in Seattle’s Longfellow Creek in Spring 2003, likely killed by stormwater runoff before they could spawn: 88

Give orca whales plenty of space this summer.

That’s the reminder Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials are giving to recreational boaters – at a time when more boaters head out amid southern resident whales, which are in area waters, mainly in northern Puget Sound, from spring into fall.

Wildlife officials also want boaters to give a wide berth to other marine mammals.

As for the orca, also known as killer whales, state law requires boaters to stay at least 300 feet – the length of a football field – away from them Boaters who accidentally get closer must stop and let the whales pass, according to wildlife officials.

The state regulations apply to small watercraft, including tour boats, private powerboats, sailboats, kayaks, canoes, and personal floatation devices.

“Believe me, we do recognize they’re spectacular,” said Rocky Beach, wildlife diversity division manager for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. “But at the same time we don’t want to hurt the whales or detract from them being successful in their recovery.”

Southern resident orcas are listed as endangered under state and federal law, with about 90 whales.

The whales need space because vessel disturbance can interfere with their ability to feed, communicate with one another, and care for their young, wildlife officials said.

Beach said three things affect the southern resident whales: A drop in the population of salmon, their main source of food; the level of boat traffic, and harassment they encounter as a result; and environmental contaminants.

All three are related, he said.

It’s likely the whales are having a tough time finding food, so they’re spending more energy to feed. If they are moved off their path because of multiple encounters with boaters, they must burn even more energy to hunt.

That causes their bodies to use more of their blubber, which in turn pulls more contaminants into their system, such as heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls.
Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/07/02/1509419/wildlife-officials-reminder-recreational.html#ixzz0setlty3u

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/07/02/1509419/wildlife-officials-reminder-recreational.html#ixzz0setd0KTq

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/07/02/1509419/wildlife-officials-reminder-recreational.html#ixzz0setYQKTo

Most mammals don’t live long past their reproductive years, failing to serve much evolutionary purpose after they can stop passing on their genes to offspring.

Only three long-lived social mammalian species are known break that mold.Killer whales (Orcinus orca), pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) and humans (as well as possibly some other great apes) all have females that generally live for decades after they cease being able to bear young. So what might we have in common with these cetaceans?

A new study, published online June 30 in Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, describes a strong link with specific social patterns that might predispose females to live beyond their fertile years.

“Whether it is younger or older individuals that are most likely to refrain from breeding and adopt the role of kin-selected helpers, depends on the pattern of dispersal and mating,” the researchers concluded.

In species in which the males leave home to breed, over a female’s lifetime, she is surrounded by an increasing number of males to which she is not related (as male offspring leave home and others die). Thus, this pattern increases her options for new mates and decreases the incentive for helping to provide for young that are not her own (or carry any of her genes), the researchers, Rufus Johnstone, of the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, and Michael Cant, of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter, noted in their paper.

For mammals in which the female leaves the group to mate—or in which breeding happens away from the group—a female will find herself surrounded by an increasing number of males to which she is related (as sons, grandsons and other generations of males stick around). In this scenario, it actually behooves her—and the group—to stop mating (and competing for breeding resources that could increase the fertility of younger females) and help younger females raise her progeny. Other research has shown that having a grandmother around to help out confers extra benefits on younger generations.

To read the whole article click here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=the-grandmother-factor-why-do-only-2010-06-30

Last February, when a 12,000-pound orca named Tilikum dragged his SeaWorld trainer into the pool and drowned her, it was the third time the big killer whale had been involved in a death. Many observers wondered why the animal was still working. But some experts, knowing the psychological toll of a life spent in captivity, have posed a darker question: Was it human error, or can a killer whale choose to kill?

	An orca at SeaWorld San Diego (Photograph by Britta Jaschinski/Redux)

To work closely with a killer whale in a marine park requires experience, intuition, athleticism, and a whole lot of dramatic flair. Few people were better at it than top SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, who, at 40, was blond, vivacious, and literally the poster girl for the marine park in Orlando, Florida, appearing on billboards around the city. She decided she wanted to work with killer whales at the age of nine, during a family trip to SeaWorld, and loved animals so much that as an adult she used to throw birthday parties for her two chocolate Labs.

This past February 24, Brancheau was working the Dine with Shamu show, featuring SeaWorld’s largest killer whale, a six-ton, 22-foot male known as “Tili” (short for Tilikum). Dine with Shamu takes place in a faux-rock-lined, 1.6-million-gallon pool that has an open-air café wrapped around one side. The families snacking on the lunch buffet that Wednesday were getting an eyeful. Brancheau bounced around on the deck of the pool, wearing a black-and-white wetsuit that echoed Tilikum’s coloration, as she worked him through a few of the many “behaviors” he had learned during his nearly 27 years as a marine-park denizen. The audience chuckled at the sight of one of the ocean’s top predators performing like a circus animal.

The show ended around 1:30 P.M. As the audience started to file out, Brancheau fed Tilikum some herring (he eats up to 200 pounds a day), doused him a few times with a bucket (killer whales love all sorts of stimulation), and moved over to a shallow ledge built into the side of the pool. There, she lay down in a few inches of water, talking to him and stroking him, conducting what’s known as a “relationship session.” Tilikum floated inert in the pool alongside her, his nose almost touching her shoulder. Brancheau was smiling, her long ponytail flaring out behind her.

To read the entire article click here: http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/201007/killer-whale-behavior-trainer-death-seaworld.html

This killer whale calf which was discovered on a beach near Point No Point on May 4 died within a day or two of birth.

Photograph by: Stefan Beckmann, Department of Fisheries and Oceans

A dead orca calf that washed ashore west of Sooke in early May appears to have been a casualty of a strong windstorm that swept the coast with 40-knot winds, results of a necropsy show.
“This birth, combined with a huge storm, was bad timing for the calf,” Paul Cottrell, marine mammal co-ordinator with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said yesterday.

Analysis based on DNA reveals the male orca was not one of the endangered southern residents but a member of a transient pod.

The death rate among orca calves in resident populations is steep, as high as 40 per cent over the first year.

The survival rate for transients is believed to be similar, although the transient animals prove more difficult to track.

The young orca was spotted on a beach near Point No Point resort on May 4 and was retrieved by DFO staff for examination.

A necropsy carried out by veterinarian Stephen Rafferty showed the whale was between half a day and two days old.

It measured just 2.4 metres in length and weighed 220 kilograms.

The lungs were partly inflated but it had very little milk in its stomach, said Cottrell.

“I think there were complications about being born with these huge waves and trying to nurse and breathe,” said Cottrell.

The calf had not been able to get its first milk from its mother that contains important nutrients to help it fend off infection. This also rules out earlier theories that the calf had been killed in part by toxins contained in the mother’s milk.

The calf also quickly became dehydrated, said Cottrell.

A check for causes of death showed the calf was “basically healthy” with no pre-existing lesions, pathogens or bacterial infections, Cottrell said.

Nor was the calf affected by demoic acid, a compound contained in some algae blooms.

The storm was likely the cause of death, said Cottrell, “but it’s always hard to say for sure.”

The calf was battered by waves pushing it ashore, he added.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

By Thayer Walker

Ken Balcomb’s living room feels like a natural history museum. Two life-size fiberglass porpoises, cast from the frozen remains of animals that Balcomb found dead in the field, hang by ropes beside the fireplace. Mounted above a doorway is the baleen plate from a bowhead whale, its plankton-filtering hairs brushing the wall. On the coffee table, crowding a pile of books, rests the giant, toothy skull of a 26-foot killer whale, nearly as big as the table itself. There’s a small television by the piano, but for years the most exciting shows around here have unfolded on the other side of Balcomb’s bay windows, in the frigid waters of Washington’s Salish Sea.

“When the salmon are running, the killer whales come right up against the shore,” Balcomb says, pointing to an exposed chunk of reef a few feet offshore. The 69-year-old scratches his white beard and continues in a quiet, patient drawl. “That’s why I picked this house.”

Balcomb’s home, which sits on a two-acre rise on San Juan Island, doubles as the Center for Whale Research. Through more than three decades of study, this grizzled former navy lieutenant has become a leading expert on the three pods of Puget Sound whales known as the “Southern Residents.” His research, papers, photographs, and books have helped lay the foundation for much of what science knows about these creatures.

On this unseasonably hot and clear May morning, however, no black fins cut the water beyond his window. This is whale season, but he hasn’t seen the Southern Residents for days and doesn’t expect them back anytime soon. They’ve been spending less and less time around San Juan, and last year an alarming seven whales–nearly 10 percent of the population–failed to return. Standing in his living room, scanning the water for the missing giants, Balcomb faces the most alarming question of his career: What’s killing the killer whales?

Found in every ocean, killer whales are the planet’s most widely distributed cetaceans. The northeastern Pacific orcas in Puget Sound are thought to be a subspecies. Balcomb began studying the whales in 1976 after getting a zoology degree at the University of California and spending seven years as a navy sonar specialist. When his original government-funded census project expired after seven months, he continued his research, supporting himself by hawking orca T-shirts and buttons. During tough times he ate roadkill rabbit for dinner. “This is a high-rent area now, but we were scratching by in the ’80s,” he recalls. “I told myself I’d do whatever it takes to be here.”

Continue here:  http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200911/whales.aspx

They say the federal government is violating its own Species At Risk Act by failing to protect critical habitat for B.C.’s southern and northern resident orcas.

The groups, represented by Ecojustice, have won previous Federal Court orders protecting the critical habitat of several species of birds and small fish.

Environmentalists were pleased when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) issued an order in 2009, protecting coastal B.C. waters crucial to the survival of resident killer whales.

But Ecojustice says that order falls short and its lawyers are back in court, arguing the definition of critical habitat must include several key factors.

“The south resident population numbers around 85, it’s a critical state and unless they start to address the key threats to decline, it’s going to go extinct,” Devon Page, Ecojustice’s executive director, said outside the Federal Court building in Vancouver.

Noise, food stock and pollution cited

Page identified two of those threats as a lack of food, primarily chinook salmon, and extensive pollution in the waters the orcas call home.

“Thirdly, they’ve got to start protecting the orca from noise,” he said. “More recent research suggests that the noise, the amount of boat traffic, seismic testing, drilling, that affects the ability of the orca to find its prey, to find its food.”

The ocean off the southern B.C. coast that the southern pod calls home is among the busiest waterways in North America.

Page said the case is part of a 15-year campaign by Ecojustice to protect endangered species. The group is hopeful a court victory would ensure stronger legal protection for all of Canada’s endangered species.

“We are asking for an order that the minister [of fisheries and oceans] go back, do what’s required under the Species at Risk Act, which would require releasing a protection order that identifies how they’re going to protect the critical habitat of the orca,” he said.

In court, Ecojustice lawyer Margot Venton said DFO has failed to implement adequate recovery and protection plans for the orcas.

DFO to respond

She said critical habitat must be seen as more than just a place on a map.

DFO lawyers have not yet had a chance to present their case before Justice James Russell.

Resident killer whales reside in B.C. waters year-round. The southern residents are listed as endangered, while northern residents are listed as threatened with a population of approximately 235.

The coalition of environmental groups includes the David Suzuki Foundation, Dogwood Initiative, Environmental Defence, Greenpeace, Georgia Strait Alliance, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Raincoast Conservation, Sierra Club of B.C., and the Wilderness Committee.

The court proceedings are scheduled to last for five days.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/06/15/bc-ecojustice-orcas-lawsuit.html#ixzz0rYYuECji

The Canadian Press/CBC