Strategy for the Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales

[Rain City]

I disagree traveller and here is why. Do you remember 2015? By mid June 2015 I was done fishing Springs. Freezer was full. No need to keep fishing. Most guys fishing out of Victoria still talk about that year. It was fantastic! That was the same year the Southern Residents had 9 babies born. We thought we had turned the corner. So I saw personally what more chinook also did for the Resi population. "No Fish. No Blackfish" https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/2015-orca-baby-boom-1.3382635

Last year was good. This year was FANTASTIC for winter springs at the hump and Bowen. Haven't been fishing that long but I heard things like "best in 30 years" from some older guys. Maybe it's more a matter of where than how many.

 

[saltydawg]

Last year was good. This year was FANTASTIC for winter springs at the hump and Bowen. Haven't been fishing that long but I heard things like "best in 30 years" from some older guys. Maybe it's more a matter of where than how many.

You buggers are getting our fish. ha ha. They should be coming down the outside.

 

[wildmanyeah]

You buggers are getting our fish. ha ha. They should be coming down the outside.

The fish Rain city is referring too because I turned in the heads are definitely not your fish...unless the chilliwack river is in area 20? lol

 

[traveller]

Just back from meeting with a couple of friends and chatting about this topic, and referencing the comments by California which I still feel reflect less direct science and more emotion, but do not want to turn this into a challenge contest, or " scientist poker" contest of I'll see your scientist, and raise you with these two....

I am going to refer to a document I knew existed, but did not have the link for until this afternoon. ( http://www.marinemammal.org/wp-content/pdfs/SRKW_Prey_Workshop_Proceedings_2018.pdf There was a scientific forum this spring, where all of the scientists who study Orcas, bot US and Canada were invited, as well as the DFOP stock Assessment folk, as well as our University Fisheries program people as well. The Link I supply is by Dr. Andrew Trites, and Davis Rosen, who summarized the forum proceedings. It is a number of pages long , fascinating reading, and is the collected consensus of those attending....one of who represented our recreational fisheries very, well, and was well received.

In fact the forum supported what I have been saying about chinook abundance, that it may well not be the main problem, but that access to the chinook should be the main focus...and that means acoustic noise which belongs to all ships, vessels, and boats...including commercial crab and prawn boats, as well as the large number of big and small while watching boats, and of course big time tanker traffic.

In the spirit of Spring Velocity's request for solutions, this forum suggested practical and science based approaches, which did not focus only on stopping recreational fishing and catch...in fact it suggested that this kind of approach would be largely ineffective. In terms off what we should be pursuing, this gives a great plan, and we should , I believe be requesting, or requiring a science based approach, not a populist twitter based approach which we seem to be getting now. My cut and paste from the document is:

"Chief among these were uncertainties about how much prey are needed for SRKW to successfully forage and meet their needs, uncertainty in predicting foraging patterns and identifying which locations are most important, and whether partial or total fishery closures within SRKW habitat would significantly increase the numbers of Chinook that SRKW could capture. The scientific justification and confidence in this action producing the desired benefits to SRKW were ranked low to medium.


Based on the current state of knowledge and best available data, workshop participants had higher confidence in the effectiveness of Action C (limiting vessel disturbances to make the Chinook that are already present easier for SRKW to catch) than they did in increasing the abundance of Chinook by closing or adjusting fisheries (Actions A & B).


A: Increase abundance of Chinook coast-wide by reducing removals by fisheries

Based on the evidence presented at the workshop, scientific confidence that this Management Action was feasible or would provide the desired benefit to SRKWs was overwhelmingly low or unknown.


This is partly based on the observation that some of the >900 Chinook salmon stocks in BC waters that are most prevalent in SRKW diets are also currently the most abundant Chinook runs. "

 

[ericl]

Overall, pretty good, although I disagree about not using option A

Now my turn to cherry pick from the same study:

"Although two studies (Noren 2011 and Williams et al. 2011) used different approaches to estimate prey requirements of Southern Resident killer whales, the result s were only slightly different. Estimates of total consumption of Chinook salmon by Southern Resident killer whales using the two different methods were similar and suggest that the population of Southern Resident killer whales may consume a significant p roportion of Fraser River Chinook during summer months. A third study (Hanson et al. in prep) that assessed consumption of specific salmon runs also found that the percent consumption of Chinook abundance varied by run, and that Chinook consumption by Sou thern Resident killer whales is potentially significant relative to the Chinook abundance for some runs. "

"Chinook availability may be inadequate to support SRKW population growth to recovered status. "

" The key conclusions were:

- Body condition of SRKWs has been declining since 2008.

- Declines in body condition have been linked to known mortalities in several cases, including 5/6 most recent mortalities (the other death attributed by blunt force trauma).

- SRKWs were in worse condition than NRKWs in 2015 and 2016.

- J - pod (as indicated by the J16 matriline) was in worse condition in May compared to September, in both 2016 and 2017.

- These data are consistent with nutritional stress in SRKWs. "

"Aggregations of fishing vessels on SRKW foraging hotspots decreases accessibility of salmon prey due to an interference effect.

 SRWK often pursue salmon at or near the surface. These chases are readily disrupted by nearby vessels.

 In view of the small size, declining average body condition and negative population trajectory of the SRKW population, fishing restrictions on foraging hotspots and measures to increase minimum approach distances of boats to SRKW should be considered, especially in years of poor salmon returns and/or whe n killer whale body condition is poor. "

"Sound exposure including auditory, behavioral and physiological effects

- Frequency range of best hearing sensitivity in killer whales is 20 - 50 kHz, then don’t hear well below 600 Hz or above 114 kHz

 SRKW soundscape/critical habitat is dominated by vessel traffic


 Vessel noise has potential to mask acoustic signals of whales

- Vocal responses to noise should be interpreted as an anti - masking strategy by the whales "

So I see this as no vessels in certain areas that are identified as critical habitat.

 

[traveller]

As you said Eric, this is cherry picking from individual discussions, I chose from the summary of the group consensus, and the group recommendations as to how to proceed...the group did not choose option A. The noise from vessels such s Whale watching boats and even great from freighters does not seem to be addressed by the current actions.

 

[cohochinook]

I started this as a new topic, but thought I should post it here as well:

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Parks Canada Agency (PCA) are pleased to notify you of the following information sessions regarding the proposed amendments to the Recovery Strategy for the Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Canada.

As noted in our previous e-mail sent September 4th 2018, the amended Recovery Strategy includes identification of two additional areas as proposed critical habitat for Resident Killer Whales following recent science advice, as well as clarification of the features, functions and attributes for proposed and existing critical habitat. The proposed amended Recovery Strategy is currently posted on the Species at Risk Public Registry, and public input is being sought on Section 7 (Critical habitat) of the document for a 60-day comment period (September 4 – November 3, 2018). Input is sought via the above link or through the regional SARA program (contact info below).

The purpose of the information sessions is to provide information about the proposed critical habitat for Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales, including the description of the science advice underlying the identification of the additional proposed critical habitat areas, and to answer questions about the proposed amendments to the document.

Locations, dates and times of these meetings are:

Webinars:

· Webinar 1: Tuesday, September 25th, 2018, 10 am – 12 pm

· Webinar 2: Wednesday, September 26th, 2018, 10 am – 12 pm

WebEx Information:

• Toll-free dial-in number (Canada/US): 1 877-413-4782
• Local dial-in number: 613-960-7511
• Conference ID: 5681284

Regional in-person meetings:

· Port Alberni (Best Western Barclay Hotel, 4277 Stamp Ave.): Wednesday, October 3rd 2018, 6-9 pm

• Ucluelet (Black Rock Oceanfront Resort, Ballroom, 596 Marine Drive): Thursday, October 4th 2018, 6-9 pm

Please RSVP for the above webinar(s) and/or in-person meetings to SARA.XPAC@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. If you require further clarification, please call 604-666-7907 or email SARA.XPAC@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

Species at Risk Program

Pacific Region

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

200-401 Burrard Street, Vancouver BC V6C 3S4

Telephone: 604-666-7907

 

[SpringFever552]

Ive got but 1 question for all who believe there is low #'s of Springs or any other salmon for that matter for the SRKW's to eat..

Are salmon reaching the spawning grounds??

Are you saying that seals hanging out in the chuck at river mouths gourging on returning salmon are smarter than these whales?

We've all seen whales in harbours close to traffic so they are not afraid of boat traffic or humans.


Case closed!!!

Its a much larger problem with these whales.

Lets move on and deal with REAL issues

 

[california]

As you said Eric, this is cherry picking from individual discussions, I chose from the summary of the group consensus, and the group recommendations as to how to proceed...the group did not choose option A. The noise from vessels such s Whale watching boats and even great from freighters does not seem to be addressed by the current actions.

They do recommend the highest impact activity is elimination of vessel traffic. Since this is the highest impact activity should we be surprised there are habitat exclusion zones and more being proposed? if one were to follow the recommendations of the panel there would be a lot more zones, that should exclude not just sport fishers, but whale watchers too, and commercial traffic. Some commercial traffic can just not be stopped, and will not be. So the types of traffic that can easily be eliminated in any given areas and diverted to other areas are sport fisherman and whale watchers, and to some extent commercial fisherman. DFO has chosen to only exclude sport fisherman however which is not consistent with the recommendations. Of course any exclusion zone is met with howls of protest on this forum, as there are NEVER any whales in any of them according to the experts on this forum. Whales only feed where sport fisherman do not go apparently. So Travellor if you are going to extensively quote this study to justify that Chinook catch restrictions should not be put on, you must therefore support extensive exclusion zones to allow better access to the existing Chinook as that is also what is called for. I'm not sure this is a better option for sport fisherman as the bag limit in an exclusion zone is 0/day.

The panel does NOT in any case recommend not implementing fishing restrictions. They extensively outline the nutritional stress issue, in particular the difference in condition in September vs May. It puts their effectiveness at low to medium, not low, or very low, or none. The rationale is based on variable abundance of the runs. translation: There are times when prey availability is not an issue LIKE RIGHT NOW, esp in a Fraser dominant sockeye year. Extensive bag limit reductions at this time of year are likely not effective as they have enough food. The preferred management tool right now is back to exclusion zones to ensure the prey items are accessible. They still leave fishing restrictions on the table as a possible management tool. If we assume most user groups do not want optimally extensive exclusion zones, then the next best management tool to implement would be some fishing restrictions in order to reduce the extent of the exclusion zones. We see this now with early season chinook limit restrictions with some being eased later in the season.

Case closed!!!

What case did you make? Travellor is looking the study and making a case that can be rationally argued. You just kind of shouted out some random thoughts not really supported by anything. The study doesn't say they are AFRAID of boats, its says vessel presence interferes with feeding activity. Much different issue. Actual studies identify seals a predators mainly of young salmon, but they do get some particularly where man made barriers exist, its not a matter of relative intelligence. Are chinook making it to the spawning grounds? Of course, but many less than what historically did. What is the point there. Some fish make it back so there are no issues with Chinook survival?

 

[OldBlackDog]

Interesting, Ottawa phone number.

In person meetings are only in two places on the west coast of Vancouver island.

I started this as a new topic, but thought I should post it here as well:

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Parks Canada Agency (PCA) are pleased to notify you of the following information sessions regarding the proposed amendments to the Recovery Strategy for the Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Canada.

As noted in our previous e-mail sent September 4th 2018, the amended Recovery Strategy includes identification of two additional areas as proposed critical habitat for Resident Killer Whales following recent science advice, as well as clarification of the features, functions and attributes for proposed and existing critical habitat. The proposed amended Recovery Strategy is currently posted on the Species at Risk Public Registry, and public input is being sought on Section 7 (Critical habitat) of the document for a 60-day comment period (September 4 – November 3, 2018). Input is sought via the above link or through the regional SARA program (contact info below).

The purpose of the information sessions is to provide information about the proposed critical habitat for Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales, including the description of the science advice underlying the identification of the additional proposed critical habitat areas, and to answer questions about the proposed amendments to the document.

Locations, dates and times of these meetings are:

Webinars:

· Webinar 1: Tuesday, September 25th, 2018, 10 am – 12 pm

· Webinar 2: Wednesday, September 26th, 2018, 10 am – 12 pm

WebEx Information:

• Toll-free dial-in number (Canada/US): 1 877-413-4782
• Local dial-in number: 613-960-7511
• Conference ID: 5681284

Regional in-person meetings:

· Port Alberni (Best Western Barclay Hotel, 4277 Stamp Ave.): Wednesday, October 3rd 2018, 6-9 pm

• Ucluelet (Black Rock Oceanfront Resort, Ballroom, 596 Marine Drive): Thursday, October 4th 2018, 6-9 pm

Please RSVP for the above webinar(s) and/or in-person meetings to SARA.XPAC@dfo-mpo.gc.ca. If you require further clarification, please call 604-666-7907 or email SARA.XPAC@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

Species at Risk Program

Pacific Region

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

200-401 Burrard Street, Vancouver BC V6C 3S4

Telephone: 604-666-7907

 

[terrin]

Wonder if this contributed to the problem

1966-early 1970s Don Goldsberry and Ted Griffin develop a netting technique for capturing orcas in Puget Sound, selling the animals mostly to Sea World. By the early 1970s, Goldsberry has captured more than 200 orcas. About 30 were sent to various aquaria. The rest went to Sea World.

1970 Penn Cove, Washington, whale capture. 80 whales are corralled by the Seattle Public Aquarium's collectors. Several whales die during the capture. Their bellies are slit and they are weighed down with steel chains. A few of these whales wash ashore and cause public outcry against whale captures in Washington's waters.

It is a disgusting burden that we must bear and we owe the Whales to do what ever we can to try and make it right. This was done for an entertainment dollar and the guy claims to have done more for Killer Whales than anybody. Whatch the link if you can stomach it.

 

[ericl]

To clarify the above video; it's the guy from Seaworld who bought the whales who said he cares about them more than any environmentalist. The guy with the gray beard was part of the capture team & now deeply regrets what he did.

 

[SerengetiGuide]

I don’t see them doing the nrkw areas. Would decimate places like telegraph cove and McNeill. Alder bay as well as backside of Malcolm is go to for those areas. As well as out pressure on other areas around mcneill. That’s one thing they aren’t thinking through properly with the MPA’s as well. Also don’t see langara being shut down. Big money owns those lodges. Dumber decisions have been made by dfo but really can’t see it happening.

I don’t know much about la prusse and that area with killer whales so won’t comment on that. Sounds like it’s bs though.

 

[traveller]

I see Eric copied this from the report "  SRWK often pursue salmon at or near the surface. These chases are readily disrupted by nearby vessels." Seeing as Chinook are deepest swimming of all the species of salmon, and in Georgia Strait we rarely catch them above 90 feet down, if the SRKW are surface feeders, this may be one of the reasons they re having trouble finding chinook.

One of the best suggestions, in my opinion that the Recreational sector made was to have a moving " bubble zone " such that, as we nearly all do anyway, when the whales appear, we reel up, turn off the sounders;, and move to another area away from them. This would enable their foraging without our noise, and would happen wherever the whales appear.

 

[OldBlackDog]

Remember that old saying?

“ Never Assume”

These areas have been being reviewed by the Greens and FN while you were guiding this summer.

Having seen some of the proposed ideals, you need to be very worried and all the towns you mentioned.

Contact the SFI as they have the info. As does the chair of the SFAB.

I don’t see them doing the nrkw areas. Would decimate places like telegraph cove and McNeill. Alder bay as well as backside of Malcolm is go to for those areas. As well as out pressure on other areas around mcneill. That’s one thing they aren’t thinking through properly with the MPA’s as well. Also don’t see langara being shut down. Big money owns those lodges. Dumber decisions have been made by dfo but really can’t see it happening.

I don’t know much about la prusse and that area with killer whales so won’t comment on that. Sounds like it’s bs though.

 

[The Jackel]

So Cali if vessel noise and fishing vessels are such an issue with the whales can you tell me why they hung out the entire summer in the fishing fleet in Sooke area, also looking forward to some of your fishing stories and pictures. In all the years i have fished Swiftsure i have seen killer whales once and they took down a humpback calf so me thinks they are not the Southern Pod, but hey lets all drink the green kool aid that seems so popular at the moment.

 

[Aces]

So Cali if vessel noise and fishing vessels are such an issue with the whales can you tell me why they hung out the entire summer in the fishing fleet in Sooke area, also looking forward to some of your fishing stories and pictures. In all the years i have fished Swiftsure i have seen killer whales once and they took down a humpback calf so me thinks they are not the Southern Pod, but hey lets all drink the green kool aid that seems so popular at the moment.

I think Jackel should cut plug all summer and hand feed those Orcas all those Chinooks so they don't go hungry

 

[tubber]

Ft, if you keep antogonizing the Jackel he will try to buy your slip in Tofino out from under you while you are down south in case they close everything below Long Beach.

 

[The Jackel]

I think Jackel should cut plug all summer and hand feed those Orcas all those Chinooks so they don't go hungry

Ha ha those sons a ******* would starve to death if that were the case

 

[ziggy]

From the SARA registry document.

Listed below are the key areas where further knowledge is needed:

• The year-round distribution and behaviour of resident killer whales
• Critical and important habitat for resident killer whales, in addition to the areas identified in this strategy
• The historical abundance of resident killer whales
• The year-round diet and energetic requirements of resident killer whales
• The consequences of changes in key prey populations on resident killer whales, as well as their historic trends
• The population level consequences of low population size and its effects on the sustainability and viability of resident killer whales
• The population size that is needed to maintain the cultural and genetic diversity of resident killer whales
• The long- and short-term effects of physical disturbance (shipping, whale watching, aircraft, researchers and film makers) on resident killer whales
• The long- and short-term effects of acoustic disturbance (whale watching, seismic surveys, military sonar, researchers and film makers) on resident killer whales
• The full range of anthropogenic environmental contaminants to which killer whales and their prey are exposed, over time and in space, with special attention paid to the identification of sources and the resulting effects of environmental contaminants on resident killer whales, their prey and their habitat
• Diseases, pathogens, parasites and pathologies of resident killer whales
• The effects of climate or environmental change on resident killer whale prey and their habitat

Based on this it appears we have numerous knowledge gaps. Have any of these gaps been closed? It would appear there is no single factor and some like population level may be very difficult to solve, the catch 22.