Orca expert's dire warning about Puget Sound orcas
One of the world’s most respected Orca researchers is warning we are at the survival crossroads for the Pacific Northwest pods. The endangered Southern Resident Orcas that frequent Puget Sound are not rebuilding their numbers as hoped.
Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research, is doing what he’s done for 40 years. Photographing and recording the Southern Resident orcas.
“We’ve got less than 20 reproductive age females at present and not many coming up through the ranks. We can’t have a population without reproduction,” he added.
Balcomb knows these whales better than anyone. He has snapped tens of thousands of frames documenting their births, deaths and lives for 40 years. Federal agencies have depended heavily on his work for their plan to help the orcas recover. But when he reads the government’s latest report on that plan, he feels even worse about the orcas’ future. “I’m disappointed,” he said. “It’s a very glossy summary for the public and Congress to look at how the money was spent.”
Balcomb feels the report wastes time on concepts like pressure from whale watching boats and pollution and misses the key factor in the decline of the killer whales. “And it’s going to continue to decline until we do something about Chinook salmon stocks throughout their range,” he said. Unlike other orcas whose numbers are increasing, the Southern Residents are almost exclusive eaters of Chinook salmon.
