Breaching Human Boundaries

Resident orca pod populations in the Salish Sea have diminished due to human activities. Varying regulations across state and national borders haven’t helped.

An orca whale breaches Puget Sound off the northern tip of Vashon Island near Seattle, Wash., on Nov. 5, 2018. // Photo by Mark Sears

Story by Cody Mills

June 13, 2024

Off the west coast of the San Juan Islands a group of Southern resident killer whales plays in the deep turquoise waters, darting in and out of thick strands of bull kelp. On the surface is a gathering of boats and colorful kayaks, filled with curious onlookers unaware of their impact on the orcas.

Southern resident killer whales are an endangered species. Their population was once in the hundreds. Now, they have a population somewhere in the 70s. 

Southern resident populations have declined for three primary reasons: noise from vessels interfering with their ability to find food, a buildup of persistent organic pollutants, or toxicants, in the food chain and a drop in prey population, according to an Endangered Species Coalition report published in 2018.  

Vessel disturbance regulation has the potential to rapidly combat a declining orca population. Once this type of regulation is put into place, the benefits to orcas are immediate, according to Cindy Elliser, associate director of the Salish Sea Institute. 

Orcas are among the top predators in the ocean and play a critical role in structuring the food web.

Southern resident orcas span from California to southeast Alaska. The laws that protect them, however, vary across state and international borders.

“We’re creating all these invisible boundaries that the animals and plants don’t care about,” Elliser said.

A pod of southern resident orcas named the “L Pod” is seen with the Seattle, Wash., skyline in the background on Nov. 9, 2022. // Photo by Mark Sears

Washington’s Orca Protection Efforts 

In 2018, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee created a task force on Southern resident recovery. The task force includes members from all levels of government, nonprofits, the private sector and Tribal representatives. They established a licensing program for Washington state which allows the Department of Fish and Wildlife to limit and restrict where, when and how many boats can view orcas at a time. 

Southern residents are not only an ecologically significant species, but also a culturally significant one, according to Leonard Forsman, chairman of the Suquamish Tribe and a member of the orca task force. 

“They’re obviously a part of our natural ecosystem, and therefore have a right to exist,” Forsman said. “They’re also central to some of our belief systems and creation stories.”

The distribution of orca whales along the west coast of North America, including the locations of high vessel traffic within the Salish Sea. // Graphic by Adelle LaTour.

The task force introduced legislation was passed in 2019 which authorized the WDFW, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, to create the commercial whale watching licensing program, requiring whale-watching vessels to maintain a 3,000-foot buffer from southern residents that went into effect in 2021. Recreational vessels, however, were only required to maintain a 1,200-foot buffer, per the new legislation.

The Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA), a group of eco-tourism professionals based in Washington state and British Columbia, opposed the legislation. The association argued that as professionals with more experience boating around orcas, they should not be singled out. 

Incidents of vessels approaching southern residents too closely or at dangerous speeds were cut in half by the presence of commercial whale-watching vessels, according to a 2022 study published in Science Direct. 

These buffers are created to limit the noise exposure of southern residents from vessels. Killer whales use echolocation to find and catch prey. This is inhibited by excess outside noise from commercial and recreational vessels.

Last year, Gov. Inslee signed legislation that requires recreational vessels to maintain the same 3000-foot buffer as is required of whale-watching vessels. This legislation will go into effect in 2025.

“We weren’t fans of the original whale watch [buffer], but once that went into effect, we did push to make sure that applied to all vessels,” Erin Gless said, the executive director of the PWWA.

A Bigg’s killer whale breaches the surface of Puget Sound within sight of a passing Washington State Ferry. // Photo by Johannes Frieger, San Juan Excursions, Courtesy of PWWA

Canada’s Orca Protection Efforts

In May of this year, Canada’s minister of transport issued an interim order for the protection of southern resident killer whales. This order created an orca buffer of about 1300 feet. It also prevents vessels from intentionally placing themselves in the path of southern residents, creates areas of refuge for orcas where the public is not allowed and enforces speed-restricted zones that limit vessel speeds to around 12 miles per hour. 

British Columbia also operates a voluntary slow-down initiative out of the Port of Vancouver. The Enhanced Cetacean Habitat and Observation Program (ECHO) is a voluntary speed reduction initiative that asks commercial vessels to reduce their speed from June through November when southern residents are likely to be in the waters. 

ECHO initiatives have reduced the sound intensity in foraging areas of southern residents by more than half. They aren’t the only organization working to protect southern resident orcas. 

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation, a group of experts dedicated to the preservation of coastal British Columbia, created a petition in 2024 that asked Canadian officials to create an almost 3300-foot buffer around southern residents. The petition needed 500 signatures to pass on to the Minister and closed in April. The results of the petition are still unclear. 

“We feel that current approach distances are not supported by science,” Lance Barrett-Lennard, a research scientist at Raincoast, said. 

The bigger the buffer, the more likely southern resident orcas are to dive frequently and forage longer, according to a 2020 observational study published in Frontiers.

Other studies have shown that human-caused noise from boats can overlap with the echolocation calls of southern residents and has been linked to increased stress levels and poor foraging returns. In extreme cases, too much noise can cause stranding events, where an individual or group of orcas are separated from the rest of their pod.

Orcas are very social animals that struggle to survive on their own, so keeping pods together is vital, according to the Orca Conservancy.

Both Southern and Northern resident killer whales are impacted by changing boundary lines and differing regulations. 

A Transboundary Success

In early 2002, an orphaned juvenile Northern resident killer whale was stranded over 300 miles from home in the waters of Central Puget Sound. The calf was in poor health, underweight and riddled with parasites. Springer the orca was in dire straits. 

Northern residents typically range from southeast Alaska to the northern end of Vancouver Island. Springer would need to be taken across the Canadian border to be reunited with her pod. 

Governmental organizations from both sides of the border created an advisory panel of independent researchers and worked together to rescue Springer. The panel advised that Springer be returned to Canadian waters, despite offers from multiple aquariums to take on the rescue themselves.  

An additional seven non-governmental organizations established the Orphan Orca Fund to streamline donations from the public to aid rescue efforts. 

“[Springer] needed to be back in Johnstone Strait, on the north end of Vancouver Island, by midsummer when her family was most likely to be there,” Donna Sandstrom, founder and executive director of The Whale Trail, said. 

A family of southern resident orcas known as the “K Pod” travels through Puget Sound on Nov. 30, 2018. // Photo by Mark Sears

The Whale Trail is an organization that pinpoints locations onshore within the Salish Sea and along the Pacific Coast where orca sightings, and other marine mammal sightings, are common. 

After a brief recovery period in Washington state waters, Springer was transported on a catamaran donated by the Nichols Brothers Boat Builders. The Canadian Coast Guard ship that was originally to be used was called away just weeks before Springer’s scheduled transport. 

Once at Johnstone Strait, Fisheries and Ocean Canada, in collaboration with the Vancouver Aquarium, took charge of her release. 

Springer was welcomed back to her home waters by First Nation tribal members in the area. Just a day later, Springer was reunited with her pod.

“It is the only successful orca reunion in history, ever,” Sandstrom said. “It showed me what happens when we work together for the whales. And it was a true trans-boundary effort.”

In 2022, and again in 2023, SRKWs returned to the Salish Sea every summer month for the first time in five years.

Cody Mills is an environmental journalism student who seeks to bridge the divide between science, culture and policy.