A commentary. Genovali is Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s executive director. MacDuffee is Raincoast’s wild salmon program director.
In December 2014, we wrote in a commentary in the Times 91原创 that said “southern resident killer whales are no better off now than when they were listed as endangered 15 years ago.”
That endangered species listing by the federal government is now a quarter of a century old — and the situation for the southern residents still has not improved.
Degradation of southern resident killer whale habitat in the form of underwater noise, high levels of persistent industrial contaminants, and declining quality and quantity of their chinook (also known as spring) salmon prey still constrain the population from recovery.
As we wrote 10 years ago, federal fisheries managers still appear unwilling to mandate measures that would recover the seasonal availability of large old Chinook salmon, essential for the southern residents.
One way to address this is by changing our harvest of migrating and rearing chinook salmon. Moving interception fisheries from the ocean to the river could allow the larger body sizes and older ages of past chinook to return over time.
It would also rebuild many weak salmon populations. These “terminal” fisheries were the way First Nations, and even early colonial, fisheries were once conducted.
In addition to benefiting whales and chinook salmon, terminal fisheries provide social and economic benefits to river-based communities that are otherwise last in line to catch returning fish.
Similarly, action on reducing underwater noise and vessel disturbance has not been sufficient. Southern resident killer whales continue to encounter harmful levels of underwater noise.
Recent research by University of Washington scientist Jennifer Tennessen and colleagues highlights how vessel noise decreases killer whale foraging efficiency, with heightened negative impacts on females.
It emphasizes the need for more urgent efforts to reduce human-made ocean noise for species that rely on hearing and sound.
Southern resident killer whales are among the most contaminated marine mammals in the world, with industrial PCB concentrations still exceeding established thresholds for health effects, despite being banned in Canada in 1976.
In addition, the largely unregulated flow of many other contaminants from agricultural, urban and industrial activities, including current-use pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and PFAS (“forever chemicals”) harm the salmon that Resident killer whales rely on. With 1,000 new chemicals on the 91原创 market every year, an invisible crisis looms for killer whales.
The term “dark extinction” describes the loss of species where data are limited and threats poorly documented. The case of the southern residents is in stark contrast with this; they are, in fact, among the world’s best-studied cetaceans.
Again in 2024, these killer whales experienced more deaths than births. It could be argued they are hanging by a thread.
In response, Raincoast scientists and colleagues advanced a new term this year — bright extinction — that illustrates the conservation stalemate we find ourselves in. According to a November assessment by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada, these whales face an ‘imminent threat’ to their survival and recovery.
The recent Imminent Threat Assessment found that federal measures implemented to date have not been enough to stop the decline of the southern residents.
Ottawa has the authority to implement the necessary actions, namely an emergency order, but has avoided doing so to date. The longer we wait, the more we lose the potential to reverse the extinction trajectory that is unfolding.
In our commentary a decade ago, we warned that if future generations are to grow up with Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea, crucial decisions were immediately required.
But all these years later, those hard decisions have yet to be made. Instead, the status quo largely prevails, as the potential for recovery slips away.
But as we posited, this predicament is not solely a mechanistic one. As highly intelligent, social and sensitive mammals, with sophisticated communication skills and strong family ties, do these whales not have an intrinsic right to live?
While the debate regarding the fate of the southern residents primarily takes place in the realm of science, management and policy, it brings up issues around ethics, morality and even spirituality.
Will we allow the southern residents to recover and regain their rightful place in the coastal ecosystem we all share? And what will failure to achieve recovery ultimately say about us?
We would maintain that what we choose, or do not choose, to do on behalf of this endangered population of killer whales is, for British Columbians and 91原创s, one of the existential questions of our time.
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