Orcas’ threatened designation has come too late, warn environmentalists
Broadcast News
PHOTO CREDIT: Global BC file
Resident orcas off southern Vancouver Island have been having trouble producing offspring.
December 17, 2004
VANCOUVER — The U.S. government is proposing to list killer whales in the waters off Washington State as a “threatened” species.
But one orca advocacy group says it may be too late.
The threatened status would help protect the habitat of the southern resident killer whales, who spend their summers in the waters off southern Vancouver Island.
But the head of the Orca Relief environmental group says Washington should have taken action 20 years ago.
Mark Anderson says some of the males and females in the pods can no longer reproduce.
Population of the three pods has declined by nearly 20 per cent in the last decade to fewer than 85 whales.
Two years ago, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service decided the orcas didn’t need the protection provided by the threatened designation.
However, a federal court judge ordered the fisheries service to reconsider because of a lawsuit filed by environmentalists.
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