State of the Orca
Our Position Paper

Dear Friends,
Below is a position paper created during the past few months, which outlines the current facts regarding whale issues. Many professionals and scientists who are intimately involved with the issues have reviewed this paper. This paper has also been submitted to the State of Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife, in response to their request for public commentary. Gratefully, the Whale Watch Operators Association Northwest (WWOANW) has asked for permission to adopt this paper as their official position. As the letter states, its function is to clarify the issues surrounding whale watching and our ecosystem. We have found that many individuals are confused by the rhetoric surrounding whale watching, and hope that this paper provides a resource for you to find the answers to your questions. We also hope that you'll support the organizations listed at the end of the paper. Their websites give detailed descriptions of on-going research in many fields. Thanks for your time, and your support.

Sincerely,
San Juan Safaris

Unlike a lot of businesses, the watchable wildlife/outdoor adventure/eco tourism industry often attracts mission driven, idealist, bright, energetic, wonderful human beings. Thankfully San Juan Safaris is blessed to have scores apply and at present, employs approximately thirty per season.

Our branding message and mission statement is “respectful interaction with wildlife packed with serious fun” and we try hard to live up to that standard.

Since our goal is to educate our guests on all aspects of the environment, I try to develop clear messages to the public and our staff so that they can make their decisions on joining us from written guidelines and policies. I see this as a way to insure our company’s message is clear and transparent. The following is our position paper that we have developed for the up listing of the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW). It has evolved over the last three years.

Position Paper
Thirty plus years ago, local San Juan Islanders tell that one could locate where the orcas were from the sound of gun fire and seal bombs as the whales made their way along the west side of San Juan Island.

Most of you know that orcas are remarkably loyal and bonded to their family groups. During those “uninformed years,” our local pods were also pursued and captured in an effort to display them in aquariums and theme parks. The trauma and death toll for these mammals was devastating to their clans and many scientists think they still have not recovered from these attacks.

Newcomers to San Juan Island are concerned about the orca, talk about boat traffic in the summer when they see twenty to thirty boats out on the west side. Thirty plus years ago, there were as many as 800 - 1000 boats on the water day and night. They all were trying to catch salmon, with their engines and generators going and nets in the water. During the switch from night fishermen to day fishermen, there were up to 3000 boats on the west side. It was said that at night it looked like a "city on the water.” All this commotion did not cause the orcas to go extinct, but surely, it must have been a challenge for them. However, wherever there were Chinook salmon, there were orcas.

A myth that came out of that era was that there were "hundreds" of orcas. This most likely happened because individual whales were not identifiable. Some may have been counted multiple times. They also could have been counting transient orcas, offshore orcas or resident orcas. It was not until the 70's, when the orcas were identified individually, thanks to the late Dr. Michael Bigg, Ken Balcomb, and Graeme Ellis, that anyone knew for certain just how many resident orcas there were. This critical photo-identification research along with other, newer methods to study the orcas continues today, and we fully support this important work.

A perplexing research gap is the whereabouts of the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) or orcas during the late fall to early spring. During the fall and winter, members of the Southern Resident pods are often sighted in central Puget Sound, just off Seattle and especially near Vashon Island, feeding on chum salmon runs. Southern Residents have also been seen as far south as Monterey, California. Many mysteries remain to be solved as far as where these whales are in between these occasional sightings, and whether these travel patterns are something new, or whether the whales’ movements have stayed the same over time. These questions will be critical to answer if we are to ensure the whales have abundant salmon to eat and clean water to swim in throughout their home range.

We have also seen that the pods being viewed the least are suffering the most decline. In NOAA’s Final Recovery Plan for the SRKW, it states “Further confounding the matter is the fact that the heaviest viewed pod (J) has shown an overall increasing trend in numbers since the 1970's, and is currently at its highest recorded number. In contrast, L-pod is considered the least viewed pod, but is the only one to undergo a substantial and continuing decline since 1996.”

In our polarized efforts to protect orcas, common sense sometimes is ignored. We are spending real dollars to find out if orcas swim more when they are near boats - as if somehow this expenditure of energy would harm their ability to survive. Someone obviously has not told the orcas as they continually breach, tail lob, spy hop and race around sometimes all the way to Vancouver or to the outside of Vancouver Island expending huge amounts of energy, regardless of whether boats are present.

We feel very strongly that our limited research and restoration resources should be focused on salmon recovery, oil spill prevention, tanker escorts, winter tracking, persistent chemical clean up, mid-range sonar effects and stopping raw sewage from entering the home waters that we share with the orcas. Keeping focused on real issues helps set an agenda citizens can trust. Unfortunately some groups promote their own agenda based on flawed information and science. When that occurs we all lose “environmental capital.” This destroys the confidence of our citizens and weakens the environmental movement as a whole.

Many have asked how the up-listing of the Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) to Endangered Status will affect the whale watch industry. In its press release, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) did not emphasize interference from boats as a factor. I believe this is because more and more science is pointing towards the lack of prey (Chinook salmon) and the high concentrations of chemicals found in the orcas’ body tissue. Second, many believe the SRKW reached endangered status because this small and genetically unique group of whales could be devastated by a single oil catastrophe.

Most whale watch operators feel the SRKW have a better chance of surviving by this up-listing effort. I also believe that as long as science makes the decisions, "not politics,” that govern their recovery, our community and the orca will benefit in the long run from the efforts made to protect them.

Most of you are aware that for many years, the Whale Watch Operators Association Northwest (WWOANW) has been meeting with National Marine Fisheries Service and prominent whale researchers to develop Best Practices Guidelines, which dictate our behavior around the whales. It is counterintuitive that anyone deriving their livelihood from wildlife viewing would purposely harm the resource that keeps them in business. Over the past decade at these cooperative meetings, we have maintained an excellent working relationship with the agencies and enforcement personnel, and look forward to continuing those relationships. Having knowledgeable operators on the water helps to set a good example for private boaters. It also helps the research effort by reporting on the location of whales when the scientists cannot be out on the water. Incidentally, the WWOANW has also used a portion of its dues to give grants to research and educational organizations that advocate for orcas.

The Whale Watch Operators Association Northwest has continued to work with government and non-government organizations, locally and nationally to spread the word of conservation through responsible environmental education. Our collective efforts have resulted in the creation of a voluntary "no go"; foraging zone on the west side of San Juan Island, cooperative monitoring efforts with Soundwatch, the development of "Be Whale Wise" brochure and its distribution, along with the continuously updating of Best Practices Guidelines as new science dictates. The WWOANW is also responsible for educating over 300,000 visitors annually on the regional eco-system, and wildlife conservation including killer whales. National Marine Fisheries Service (US) and Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada) have praised our proactive efforts.

While calculating the economic impact of thousands of whale watch visitors to a region is difficult, we do know that they contribute millions of dollars to this non-consumptive industry. The non-direct financial contributions are likely significantly higher, and are spread out over many economic sectors. There are few industries if any that can claim the positive economic impacts without a consumptive component. The watchable wildlife industry has its origins in modeling economic stability combined with ecological sustainability.

Most whale watching companies, ours included, shut down their engines completely whenever whales are present. Even critics of whale watching concede the noise from whale watch vessels is insignificant when compared to tanker and ship traffic in Puget Sound. Most people have forgotten the huge amount of boat traffic that shared the whales’ domain in the heyday of the fishing industry in these waters.

Another often-exaggerated claim by opponents to boat-based whale watching is that the whales are pursued constantly on the water. The truth is that even at the peak of whale watch season, according to Soundwatch, there are on average ten commercial whale watch operators in the vicinity of whales near Lime Kiln State Park.

The WWOANW has, when asked by scientists, adjusted our guidelines to reflect new research findings. We often make guideline adjustments based on our own experiences and judgment of the conditions on the water from year to year. This recently occurred when “parking in the path of whales” was examined. Since parking in the path of a whale may affect the whales breathing pattern, we agreed to slide to the side of the apparent path and view the whales from the side as they go past. This is an example of pro-active adjustment to new research, and displays our willingness to employ the precautionary principle. We acknowledge that the whale watch industry is not perfect and all operators should strive to keep learning and improving their activity on the water. We also wish to acknowledge the success of the WWOANW and its Best Practices Guidelines which have set an industry standard world-wide.

At the recent International Marine Mammal Conference in San Diego, our guidelines were recognized as a good model from which other whale watching industries could learn. We will continue to work with both the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to assure we continue to be a model in the future. The Humane Society of the United States is supportive of whale watching, and believes that it is just one of many ways that the general public can save whales worldwide from continued decline. According to the Humane Society’s brochure, entitled Save Whales Not Whaling, “go whale watching and experience for yourself the beauty and value of seeing whales in their own habitat”.

It is our belief that most concerns about vessel interaction could be greatly reduced by creating permanent and adequate funding for The Whale Museum’s successful Soundwatch program. Their goal is to have a minimum of two monitoring boats on the water each day when the orcas are present. Funding could be achieved through a public/private partnership combining county, state and federal funds with contributions from the whale watching industry. When Soundwatch is present everyone has better manners around the whales. The biggest problem is private boaters who do not know or choose to ignore the Be Whale Wise Guidelines. Soundwatch is able to educate them on the spot.

Washington State may have a law on the books to enforce the Be Whale Wise guidelines by the start of the 2008 whale watch season. The Whale Watch Operators Association fully supports the passage of this law so that these guidelines, followed by commercial whale watch operators for over 12 years, can be enforced and further funding would be provided to educate private boaters.

On a personal and very positive note I would like to conclude with some thoughts. In my life time of 60 plus years, I have had the good fortune to see a remarkable shift in human thinking towards wildlife. Efforts by conservation groups, TV series, environmental education school programs and watchable wildlife viewing by responsible operators world-wide have led us from a consumptive to a non-consumptive viewing majority. Whether it be a small bird in the forest, a whale breaching or thousands of migrating wildebeests in Africa, somehow for some reason a large group of us find joy in that experience. It is that joy that moves us all to care and protect our wildlife and the habitat that sustains them.

Bill Wright
San Juan Safaris