Orcas return to BC spot where they haven't been since 1995

[Whole in the Water]

Yet another good reason why we need to keep pushing hard to get all net pen salmon farms out of the water and onto land where their numerous harmful environmental impacts can be reduced and/or better managed. Just a matter of time!

https://www.knkx.org/post/orcas-return-british-columbia-spot-where-they-havent-been-seen-1995

Orcas return to British Columbia spot where they haven't been seen since 1995​

By CRAIG MCCULLOCH • JAN 19, 2021

A pod of orcas has returned to a part of British Columbia where they have not been seen for years.

The orcas are from pod A5 and returned to Fife Sound, which is part of the Broughton Archipelago off north Vancouver Island. They were last seen there in 1995. That is when open-pen fish farms initially used a high-volume underwater speaker to scare away seals. Those fish farms have recently been removed.

Biologist Alexandra Morton has extensively studied the area’s marine life for more than 35 years and has become a vocal critic of open-pen fish farms. She feels the appearance of the whales is a sign the ecosystem is returning to normal.

“When you get an apex predator, someone that is at the top of the food chain, you can guess that the rest of the food chain is reconstituting underneath of it, because they can't go where there aren't a lot of fish,” Morton said.

Seventeen more fish farms are scheduled to be removed from a nearby area. Morton says this is the first time such a large number of open-pen fish farms have been removed.

 

[gone fishin]

Another Orca story in the TC today
The alarm bells are ringing loudly and often
But I sometimes scratch my head when I look at the numbers of J Pod.
Yes, the trend is of concern, but not as bad as some would have you believe.
AND part of their problem is inbreeding from the dominant males.
AND J pod only spend 3 or 4 months in the Salish Sea.
If you look at the statistics;
J pod, which is why we on Southern Vancouver Island are getting all these closures actually have similar patterns to L and Kpod
J pod is the first grouping on the graph.

Southern Resident Killer Whales | US EPA

An assessment of the Southern Resident Killer Whale population in the Salish Sea. Part of the U.S. EPA and Environment and Climate Change Canada's Health of the Salish Sea Ecosystem Report.

www.epa.gov