Fishing News
Fisheries Service to announce today if it believes orcas need protection
By Eric Sorensen, [email protected]
HARO STRAIT -- Puget Sound's resident killer whales were putting on a clinic of all things orca, slapping pectoral fins, swimming in tight formation, breaching, even cartwheeling in front of Dave Ellifrit and a crew from the Center for Whale Research.
The spectacle, including five tailhops, was spectacular. "Lots of whales doing lots of things," Ellifrit sang out, as if that point could escape anyone's attention.
But underlying last week's exuberant performance is the somber recognition that Puget Sound's resident orcas are in a worrisome state of decline.
And the one thing they've been doing best in recent years is a disappearing act.
Today, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is scheduled to announce how far it's willing to go to try to help protect Puget Sound's southern resident orcas. Groups seeking federal protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) point out the orca population is in trouble, the salmon runs -- once a major source of killer-whale food -- are hammered, and the fat from whales has been found to contain disturbingly high levels of toxins.
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