Posts Tagged ‘salmon’
Canadian government pushes pipeline while NGOs push for action to save Southern Resident orcas
In disappointing news from Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau is sticking by his decision to move ahead with the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline – a controversial and long-debated expansion that would triple the amount of tar sands oil being moved to the coast in British Columbia (BC), where the oil would be loaded onto tankers…
Read MoreAtlantic salmon net pens threaten wild salmon, endangered orcas
An investigation into the August 2017 disaster at an Atlantic salmon net pen facility in the Salish Sea, an inland waterway home to multiple types of whales and dolphins, found that the scale of the event was greatly downplayed by the owners of the fish farm. Washington State launched an investigation into the facility after…
Read MoreCanadian organizations push government for emergency action to save Southern Resident orcas
Canada conservation organizations are petitioning their federal government to take immediate action under the Species at Risk Act (SARA, the Canadian equivalent to the U.S. Endangered Species Act) to protect the endangered Southern Resident orca population and the Chinook salmon they depend on. They are specifically seeking measures to protect critical feeding areas, including limiting…
Read MoreA Summer Without Orcas
For Southern Resident orcas, it all comes back to the salmon Every summer since I became the Jessica Rekos Fellow for Orca Conservation at WDC, I’ve had the pleasure of traveling up to the San Juan Islands in Washington State to meet with orca researchers, conservationists, and advocates from all around the world. WDC believes…
Read MoreSouthern Residents: turning talk into action
Even while we were busy absorbing information and networking at last month’s Society for Marine Mammalogy Biennial Conference, the world went on without us (shocking!) and a couple important news stories broke about the Southern Resident orcas. I did a quick read-through while we were at the conference, and have had more time this week…
Read MoreSouthern Resident orcas face second loss this year
The Center for Whale Research (CWR) made the sad determination yesterday that 2-year old Sonic (J52) is now deceased. This is the second death for the critically endangered Southern Resident orca population this year, after a summer in which they were barely seen in their usual summer habitat. This unique and fragile population now has…
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