Activist urges Canada to adopt Washington's stricter whale-watching rules
By ANDREA WOO, VANCOUVER SUN April 10, 2011
Activist calls for stricter rules on whale watchers
VANCOUVER -- Washington state is toughening up its vessel regulations to protect endangered killer whales, and a Vancouver-based environmental group says Canada has a "moral obligation" to follow suit.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest regional office announced Friday vessels are now prohibited from approaching any killer whale closer than 180 metres and must stay out of the path of oncoming whales out to 365 metres. Previously, vessels had to stay 90 metres away.
The rules go into effect in early May and apply to all boats, including motor boats, sail boats and kayaks.
Commercial fishing boats and container ships and tankers travelling in established fishing lanes will be exempt.
Peter Hamilton, founder and director of Vancouver-based environmental group Lifeforce Society, said it's now time for Fisheries and Oceans Canada to step up.
"They have a moral obligation to at least meet [it], if not make better laws to protect the endangered orcas, because it's a trans-boundary species," Hamilton said. "Their future is really in jeopardy."
In Canada, vessels must stay at least 100 metres away from killer whales under the Canadian Marine Mammal Regulations. Summary convictions carry a maximum fine of $100,000 and one year in jail; indictable convictions carry a maximum fine of $500,000 and two years in jail.
Killer whales depend on sonar to communicate and navigate to find food. This sonar can be affected by boats, including non-motorized ones, that approach too close or block their path.
"With all those boats around, it interferes with their social lives and basic necessities of foraging," Hamilton said. "Imagine yourself out in a field, compared to downtown, with all the traffic and noise around you that takes your mind off of what you have to do."
The population of southern resident orcas off the Pacific coast is critical, having dipped to an estimated 86. They were added to the endangered species list in 2005.
"When a species gets below 1,000, it's deemed to probably become extinct," Hamilton said.
Bob Morimoto, part-owner of Steveston-based Seabreeze Adventures, is one of several whale watching operators feeling the pressure of both abiding by regulations and giving clients a memorable experience in B.C.'s scenic waters.
He said his company would be "drastically" affected should Canada adopt similar regulations.
"We've been in the industry for fairly long now, and years ago, we used to stop right in front of them with our engines off," Morimoto said. "They used to come beside us."
Morimoto believes the killer whale population dropped due to the declining population of the Chinook salmon — their preferred prey — and not because of nearby boats.
"They've been around for over 100 years in the Straight of Georgia," Morimoto said. "Years ago, there used to be hundreds of boats out there, and they'd go in between the boats and nets and it never bothered them."
Seabreeze Adventures received one of five citations issued by Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Program last summer for coming within 100 metres of a killer whale. But when the company challenged the citation in court, it was dropped.
The others were Prince of Whales in Victoria, Seaquest Adventures in Sidney, a private boater and a private pilot that repeated buzzed over several killer whales in attempts to take photos.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is unable to comment on Washington's new marine mammal regulations or whether similar initiatives are being considered in Canada, the department said in an email to The Vancouver Sun on Saturday.
The Vancouver Sun
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