Strategy for the Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales

[The Jackel]

From Wilkinsons comments it's clear they are more or less going to follow the consensus panel recommendations, which doesnt include coastwide shutdowns, so probably your hysteria is overblown. On this forum the SRKW feed nowhere on the coast. So there must be something between the nowhere here and the everywhere ENGOs think. You are on the water a lot, Where do the SRKW feed?

In the water very few times have i seen the resident whales fishing close to shore , maybe a half dozen times in the 30 years i have fished here, as for the transients much more feeding on the shoreline chasing seals and have watched some good shows by them eating the seals. As for the resident population they seem to hang more offshore as Wolf has also stated

 

[The Jackel]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10216026956723482

A video of Eric's trip off the west coast this year. Sure glad killer whales don't like boat noise and traffic

 

[ziggy]

Ahhh Jackel, judging by the wake in the foreground this boat is not trolling on its kicker. DFO has determined that only recreational boats trolling on their kickers create boat noise!

 

[part time]

Admittedly I do not have an extensive background or history with this fishery, and I sure have no love for the federal gov't; however I do see a lot of "snipping" about things we have little control over. I think this problem can be boiled down into a few major categories, and suggest if we can press all levels of gov't in these areas we may actually make some strides in improving not only the SDKW, but all levels of our BC fisheries:
My thoughts on the major problems:
1) lack of food source on which bait can feed; lack of bait (ie herring), less bait leads to smaller food stocks (salmon), boat noise from whale watchers, who are the only group who actually persue ORCAs, environment ( from warmer water, to chemicals and plastics in the water) ..
To solve these problems we should press ALL forms of government to
1) ban the use of sunblock sun screen in all fish bearing streams - sun block in sun screen is a proven contaminent and a killer of animal life in waterways.
2) drastically reduce harvesting of bait fish such as herring.. killing herring to harvest eggs is unconsionable
3) drastically curtain sightseeing boats (200 m is rediculous.. what about 1 km.. what do you see at 200 m that can't be seen at 1 km)
4) what's wrong with closing area 123 on a trial basis ? leaving area 23 open for recreational fishing
5) local gov't must isolate and collect all forms of plastics so it doesn't enter the waterways
6) treatments plants for both Van Is and the Lower Mainland are underway

 

[searun]

Admittedly I do not have an extensive background or history with this fishery, and I sure have no love for the federal gov't; however I do see a lot of "snipping" about things we have little control over. I think this problem can be boiled down into a few major categories, and suggest if we can press all levels of gov't in these areas we may actually make some strides in improving not only the SDKW, but all levels of our BC fisheries:
My thoughts on the major problems:
1) lack of food source on which bait can feed; lack of bait (ie herring), less bait leads to smaller food stocks (salmon), boat noise from whale watchers, who are the only group who actually persue ORCAs, environment ( from warmer water, to chemicals and plastics in the water) ..
To solve these problems we should press ALL forms of government to
1) ban the use of sunblock sun screen in all fish bearing streams - sun block in sun screen is a proven contaminent and a killer of animal life in waterways.
2) drastically reduce harvesting of bait fish such as herring.. killing herring to harvest eggs is unconsionable
3) drastically curtain sightseeing boats (200 m is rediculous.. what about 1 km.. what do you see at 200 m that can't be seen at 1 km)
4) what's wrong with closing area 123 on a trial basis ? leaving area 23 open for recreational fishing
5) local gov't must isolate and collect all forms of plastics so it doesn't enter the waterways
6) treatments plants for both Van Is and the Lower Mainland are underway

I can agree that most of your points make sense, however a few stand out as questionable.

What evidence do you have showing sun screen is a major source of deadly contamination? Never seen research on this, so that would be rather interesting.

Closing Area 123... do you have experience with this area? - closing it would not produce any benefits for SRKW who are rarely ever there - can you explain the benefit? Even the science advice offered to DFO has no actual evidence of SRKW utilization of this area - no passive acoustic monitoring, no observation data. Talk to any commercial troller or fishing guide who is actually on the water there, and they all have the same observation - killer whales are rarely there.

Moreover, the international science panel advice was there is no scientific basis supporting area closures as an effective tool, nor is there support for closing current fisheries. The international science advice was to address physical and acoustic disturbance, which can be accomplished with a 400m bubble zone spatial closure which essentially moves anywhere killer whales go.

 

[uclueletcharters]

SV - I believe you are right in speculating this whole thing is about the future tanker traffic and setting the stage for what the big plan is as far as the feds are concerned. These whales are not at an all time low it makes no sense why this year is the year to start all of this. As for acoustic noise, toss some tracking beacons on a few orcas in that pod that feeds location data and travel path via AIS so everyone on the water can see there current location and stay clear out of their way for both rec boats and tankers. I would have no problem investing in that system as for folks that don't want to they can use the Marine Traffic App it's the exact same at no cost. Problem solved. For those that don't follow the rules staying out side the Orca 400m buffer zone hit them hard with fines.

Thanks Searun lots of good stuff your putting out here on this forum.

 

[terrin]

I can agree that most of your points make sense, however a few stand out as questionable.

What evidence do you have showing sun screen is a major source of deadly contamination? Never seen research on this, so that would be rather interesting.

Closing Area 123... do you have experience with this area? - closing it would not produce any benefits for SRKW who are rarely ever there - can you explain the benefit? Even the science advice offered to DFO has no actual evidence of SRKW utilization of this area - no passive acoustic monitoring, no observation data. Talk to any commercial troller or fishing guide who is actually on the water there, and they all have the same observation - killer whales are rarely there.

Moreover, the international science panel advice was there is no scientific basis supporting area closures as an effective tool, nor is there support for closing current fisheries. The international science advice was to address physical and acoustic disturbance, which can be accomplished with a 400m bubble zone spatial closure which essentially moves anywhere killer whales go.

https://www.timescolonist.com/islan...ct-in-slow-dying-of-cowichan-river-1.23375231

 

[Admin]

Cleaned up the latest BS in this thread. Time to stop the endless shots being fired back and forth. Time for a few of you to cool off and leave the personal crap out of this thread and any others you might think of taking a shot at another member.

 

[part time]

information regarding the harm caused by chemicals in sunscreen are posted above by "terrin". The practice of banning sunblock sunscreen has also been adopted by Hawaii & Mexico to save coral and marine life .. We need to stay focused our long term goal .. save the marine life !
reference to closure of zone is from page 9 of the following document
Availability of Prey for
Southern Resident Killer Whales
Technical Workshop Proceedings
November 15-17, 2017
and figure 1 of the following document
Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca):
amended recovery strategy 2018 (proposed).. And while the effectiveness of these remedies is not guaranteed it's a start, and can be amended if there is no improvement

 

[searun]

Thanks PT, guess what I'm suggesting is read the science advice more closely and question the scientific basis - or rather, lack thereof. I will add that look specifically for the lack of passive acoustic monitoring on LaPerouse and parts of Swiftsure to help pin point where whales actually use the habitat. They never came out to ask FN, commercial, recreational fishers what observations they have made over the many decades (some over 50 years) fishing the area.

 

[scott craven]

In the pacific north west my guess is that banning sun-screen
would be way down the list as far as priorities go...
JMHO

 

[Fishmyster]

Sunscreen killing the Cowichan. LOL!! I don't think Joe gets out away from the home river much because the loss of insects populations is province wide. Actually it is a global issue.
Not that anyone cares but rain pH in the mid 1990's averaged in the mid 4's. Attached is a graph from rain pH taken at Saturna island by environment Canada. Acid precipitation dissolves heavy metals from watersheds and redistributes them to the sea where higher pH sea water causes them to precipitate. The Salish sea is a concentration area of freshwater contamination and the poor whales that chose to live there would not have anyway of knowing better. 2013-2014 was a bad year of high freshwater input that acidified coastal waters reactivating the buildup of heavy metals causing massive die off in starfish and shellfish. Not just the whales are suffering but everything else has suffered too!
I have continued to test the rain ph and it has been rising considerably in the last few years.So far this fall it is averaging 6.4 pH. That is 100X less acidic than twenty five years ago. Should be good for stream invertebrates and eventually SRKW's but appears to be bad for cedar trees!!

 

[searun]

Good point on the pH connection on Cowichan insects - was my first thought also. Shhhh, don't say anything about the lower acidity being bad for cedar trees...OMG, the green tree huggers will be putting in area closures around cedar tree critical habitat and declaring there is an imminent threat in order to drum up memberships.

 

[fish brain]

Good point on the pH connection on Cowichan insects - was my first thought also. Shhhh, don't say anything about the lower acidity being bad for cedar trees...OMG, the green tree huggers will be putting in area closures around cedar tree critical habitat and declaring there is an imminent threat in order to drum up memberships.

Well, if it distracts them???????

 

[searun]

What was I thinking....yes, yes we have a cedar tree crisis.

 

[part time]

It's great to have some laughs about this stuff, however our fisheries and ocean life continues to deteriorate
While we dither, debate, point fingers, and study, the problems compound and continue to deteriorate . Before you know it, there will be nothing to save, and the fisher farmers will have free reign to do as they wish
Such a proud legacy to leave our kids

 

[Stizzla]

It's great to have some laughs about this stuff, however our fisheries and ocean life continues to deteriorate
While we dither, debate, point fingers, and study, the problems compound and continue to deteriorate . Before you know it, there will be nothing to save, and the fisher farmers will have free reign to do as they wish
Such a proud legacy to leave our kids

Studying the problem is a good first step. If one day somebody actually steps up on our behalf, it would be nice to have some evidence to back it up.

Making fun of the DFO and pointing fingers at each other/other groups is the only way we can entertain ourselves for now.

 

[searun]

I was only half kidding. The greens are putting out a whole bunch of false info, and especially trying to characterize the SRKW issue as an imminent crisis, which is not at all correct. They can be considered threatened, but not a crisis that requires panicked ineffective responses before we actually know what the core problems are and identify the most effective strategies. Humans in their haste to help, often do more harm than good.

 

[profisher]

I was sent a paper that states that the 2300 known resident killer whales that inhabit the ne pacific waters have a healthy population increase of 2-3% per year. Those animals consume the same poundage of Chinook salmon as is taken in the west coast Chinook commercial fisheries. It seems a very small population of these whales (L pod) is in decline. I personally think their choice to winter in southern waters where there are
less abundant Chinook stocks is a big part of the problem.

 

[Peahead]

It's great to have some laughs about this stuff, however our fisheries and ocean life continues to deteriorate
While we dither, debate, point fingers, and study, the problems compound and continue to deteriorate . Before you know it, there will be nothing to save, and the fisher farmers will have free reign to do as they wish
Such a proud legacy to leave our kids

^^ Would this post fall under the "dither" , "debate" or "pointing fingers" category? Or maybe you could have added a 'complaining' category too - lol.