I am opposed to the proposed “whale protection zone” on the west side of San Juan Island, due to its discrimination against commercial whale-watchers, the people who work tirelessly to educate and do everything in our power to protect our southern resident killer whales (“Push on for orca-protection zone in Haro Strait habitat,” Feb. 5).
Over the past 30 years, the commercial whale-watching industry has taken out five million people on all kinds of vessels to watch seals, sea lions, porpoises, dolphins, minke, humpback and grey whales, transient orca, birds, even wolves and deer, and of course, the focus of this petition, the southern resident killer whales.
Unfortunately, the organizer of this petition, Orca Relief, appears committed to damaging the whale-watching industry. It has done nothing to contribute to orca science, nor has it done anything to educate the masses about our local ecological system that supports so many marine mammals.
The president of Orca Relief is a resident of the west side of San Juan Island, whose property overlooks the area. He is also part of a long-standing disagreement with several scientists and researchers who consider him an “outlier” for his vendetta against whale-watchers (in my opinion, the only industrious people on the water who really give a damn).
The commercial whale-watching industry has already implemented its own “whale appreciation zone” on the west side for the past 10 years, and it has been documented that we’re the most conscientious observers of orcas on the water. This area is a quarter-mile offshore no-go zone, with another quarter-mile go-slow buffer zone. This means we’re travelling under seven knots half a mile away from San Juan. Then, we are regulated to a viewing distance of 200 yards away from orcas.
The Pacific Whale Watching Association has had its own whale-watching best practices in place for approximately 20 years, long before National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regulations were developed. We exceed NOAA’s regulations on slow approaches and departures to minimize the chance that a whale notices a boat.
Over the years, NOAA has spent $20 million to protect the whales, there has been “sketchy science” attempted and reported. Since the whales can only be observed for less than five per cent of their life at the surface, the other 95 per cent is underwater, left to your imagination. Any papers produced by solely observing surface actions (tail slapping, spyhopping or breaching) without attaching a digital acoustic recording tag to an animal to profile underwater activity (depth, direction, etc.) are little better than science fiction, and are not scientifically reproducible.
When NOAA implemented its regulations, it insisted vessels kept their engines running, to be able to avoid an orca that had not read the regulations and got too close. Common sense tells us to shut down engines to enjoy the animals in peace. The other thing is that these animals can swim more than 100 miles per day, dive 20 minutes at a time, range from California to Haida Gwaii, and travel outside the Salish Sea for weeks at a time.
Do you really think they do not like boats? If this were the case, there would have been some indication over the past hundred years of motorized boating and fishing that whales don’t like boats.
On the contrary, we have seen whales bring their babies nearby to show off, some show us the salmon they caught, which they share with their family, some have rubbed alongside our boats, and many love to breach and spy hop near the boats to see what’s going on. If boats and vessel noise were an issue, why do they love to transit Active Pass when two huge ferries are romping along at 25 knots, generating huge noise in what is an open culvert of noise? What about the amazing footage on YouTube of the southern residents surfing for miles in the bow wave of a freighter in the Salish Sea last summer?
From the orca’s perspective, our boat is like a fly on the ceiling, and their world is the three-dimensional space below. Obviously, they know where the boats are, otherwise they would end up surfacing and hitting us.
I ask for your support of our fabulous educational industry and ask you to say no to this petition. Our members contribute up to $250,000 per year to whale and salmon research and growing.
More salmon, please!
Alan McGillivray owns Prince of Whales Whale Watching.
