Boater beware

The local headline news: Boat hits whale near Whidbey Island

The news story above is infuriating. This isn't a case of a recreational boat owner just getting a little too close to the whales - this is a case of complete and utter disregard for safe and intelligent boat handling.

I've talked to various boat owners over the years about what they think of the current regulations governing whale encounters are and, to be frank, I've gotten more shrugged shoulders and laissez-faire comments than an acknowledgement that the regulations should be complied with.

I get it. I really do. I've been a boat out on the water that suddenly finds itself surrounded by surfacing Orcas. I've been a boat that wasn't exactly sure what 200 yards looked like over the water and I've been on whale watching boats that 'accidently' get a little too close. I've also been that boat that didn't slow down as I saw whales and their entourage of sightseers off in the distance.

That was before. Here's the thing: I've learned over the years WHY those regulations are critically important. I've also learned that we humans may have already done enough to ensure that the Southern Resident Killer Whales won't survive at all. Gray whales have been doing better as a whole but it sure doesn't help to have boat running over them while they are trying to feed and rest.

Most recreational boaters care. They want to see whales and catch fish and enjoy the beautiful inland waters of the Salish sea. In order to enjoy all those sights and flavors of this amazing marine environment also means that recreational boaters also need to be leading the efforts of responsible stewardship. These inland waters may look vast. This sea - this fjord (because that is what the puget sound is) may look like no one is going to notice a leaky holding tank or care if you catch one too many crabs - but with over 7 million people living along the Salish sea, that impact of one person ripples out into the ability of many species to survive.

Humpback, Gray, and Blue Whales - oh my!

Did you know that they can identify Humpback whales by the underside of the flukes (the whale tail)?

Did you know that you can see where the gray whales are feeding off of Everett Washington on Google earth?

The 2017 Lecture Series hosted by Friends of Skagit Beaches started on Friday, January 20th with research biologist John Calambokidis who works with the Cascadia Research Collective.

Dr. Calambokidis put on a great presentation detailing some of the latest findings on the other whales that utilize the Salish Sea.

Regarding Humpback Whales:

The SPLASH study - Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance, and Status of Humpbacks -  involved over 400 researchers from 10 different countries between 2004 and 2006 in the Pacific Oceans. It was the largest collaborative study of its kind and its goal was to expand the working knowledge around migratory patterns for Humpback whales. Using photo identification (those flukes) and genetic studies some very interesting data was unearthed.

For your own reading: SPLASH study information

First of all, the study identified approximately 20,000 animals.  Dr. Calambokidis described one of the primary patterns that they discovered was that humpback "herds" stayed loyal to certain feeding areas. You might have multiple "herds" in Hawaii but they would travel to different areas in Alaska or the Bering Sea for feeding.

Researchers have been able to identify 14 distinct populations around the world. Some of these populations have been delisted from the Endangered Species Act, while some are listed as threaten or endangered. As an example, the Hawaii population has been delisted, while the Mexico population is listed as "threatened" and the Central Americal population is listed as "Endangered." All of these population migrate north and feed in the cold waters off of Alaska.

A question: How do we apply conservation where it is needed?

Another question that has arisen due to the fact that the number of whales seems to have leveled off - has the Pacific reached its carrying capacity for Humpbacks?

As a matter of fact, there have been areas of expanded territories - which includes San Francisco Bay and the Salish Sea. In the Salish Sea, the estimated abundance has gone from about 100 - 500 from 1995 to 2016.

The fact is, however, that the humpbacks are returning to the Salish Sea - they were here before. They were abundant enough that in the early 1900s there was a whaling station off the south end of Vancouver Island. That whaling station decimated the humpback population. It is hypothesized that it has taken this long for the humpback whales to recolonize this region.

More on Humpback whales

And then there are the Gray Whales:

The Eastern Pacific gray whales breed off the coast of Baja and travel up along the coast to the Artic waters. There are many subsets of this group that are designated by their feeding areas. The subset of most interest to us here in the Salish sea has the designation PCFA (Pacific Coast Feeding Aggregation) - but the feeding areas are further broken down into SJF (Strait of Juan de Fuca), NWA (North Washington Coast), and SVI (Southern Vancouver Island). Only a small number - estimated around 200 - gray whales are sticking around the Salish Sea over the summer months (sighted between June 1 and November 30th) while most migrate much farther north. Read the study.
(And if I have some of my facts wrong or confused, let me know!)

A question the Macah tribe needs to currently answer is which population they can take their yearly quota of whales from.

One of the most interesting activities Dr. Calambokidis talked about was the high risk feeding strategy that some gray whales are engaged in here. Off the east side of Whidbey Island where the muddy sediment is rich with ghost shrimp, these gray whales are feeding in sometimes six feet of water.

Gray whale feeding pits off of Everett courtesy of Google Earth

Findings have found that the years when the number of gray whales is higher who practice this off-migration feeding corroborates data on gray whale strandings and mortality events. This makes sense given how shallow the waters are in the specific area where the whales are feeding. Dr. Calambokidis and his team were asked to come in and determine whether the whales were feeding in any other areas and through the use of tag sensor data, they found out that the gray whales were exclusively going after the ghost shrimp in the shallow waters.

One of the things that seemed to come out of this gray whale study - or at least the impact I felt - was that by collecting data on the activity of the whales helped answer a very specific question regarding the needs of the animal - and helped humans craft a response.

Dr. Calambokidis then spent some time talking about different tagging strategies that have been used. Satellite tags are anchored in muscle and last longer but the the data collected is very limited. Limpet tags have a more medium duration and again, are invasive - thru the skin. There are concerns and issues with both of these types of tags especially after one of the southern killer whales washed up on shore after being tagged with the limpet tag. Dr. C and his team use suction cup tags that record a ton of data but may only stay on for a day at most. Retrieval has been tricky on a few tags but the amount of archival data - including video - has been phenomenal.

Here's a video of his team tagging a humpback - with video off the whale's tag: Video Tag Deployment



Dr. C, in talking about the different types of tags, says you have to consider whether or not the impact of the tag is worth the invasiveness; you have to weigh the worth of what you are trying to learn against that impact.

He talked about some of the work they've done with the NRDC and the Navy regarding sonar and whales. I've got some ready to do on those studies. Another way that the collection of data has led to some limited human change was done in a study of blue whales off the coast of Los Angeles. The areas that the blue whales feed and travel was directly under the shipping lanes. After determining that the whales were not responding to shipping traffic by getting out of the way - and they travel quite slowly - the shipping lanes were moved a kilometer. Same in San Francisco. Small steps - but at least they responded.

The takeaways from the lecture, in Dr. C's words were this:

• Migration patterns are much more complex than we have known. 
• Humpback whales stay loyal to regions and will switch prey before leaving those regions while...
• Gray whales move with the krill and respond to conditions - which is why some of them practice the high risk ghost shrimp strategy.

My takeaways:

• There are ways to incorporate the needs of other species into our human world of shipping lanes and naval maneuvering. 
• We can't do that without the research and data that groups like Cascadia Research provide.
• When we see the complexity of behavior in another species, it becomes increasingly difficult to not see how our human actions impact these amazing creatures. It becomes very difficult to relegate other species to the 'dumb animal' category.
• It also becomes increasingly difficult to simply shrug the shoulders and say - these animals will simply adapt to changing conditions. By studying behavior and the ecosystem within which they move, we see how some species may attempt new adaptation strategies - but are hamstrung by human behavior such as noise pollution, sonar, toxins in the water.
• Basically, the more we know about these complex creatures and the ecosystems that overlap with our own the more we humans can understand how we are just one of many creatures who depend on a healthy environment to thrive. 

Sources:
Calambokidis, J., J.L. Laake, and A. Klimak. 2010. Abundance and population structure of seasonal gray whales in the Pacific Northwest, 1998-2008. Paper SC/62/BRG32 presented to the IWC Scientific Committee.

The Naming of the Salish Sea

Turn Point Light House - right on the border

When I first heard that the Puget Sound and inner coastal waters of Vancouver Island in B.C. were being given a new name - the Salish Sea - I was excited. The United States Board on Geographic Names and the Geographic Names of Canada made the designation in 2009. I immediately embraced the Salish Sea as a wonderful way to describe this rich bio-region. I liked the idea of the United States and Canadian government coming together and identifying these waters as a unique sea that spans the border between our two countries. I remember hoping that perhaps with a common body of water, both the U.S and Canada would begin to identify mutually beneficial practices and regulations that promoted a healthy thriving ecosystem.

A little history:
Marine biologist Bert Webber is credited with coming up with the term Salish Sea in 1988. He didn't want to replace the existing names of the various bodies of water - he wanted a term that complemented them AND encompassed them as a whole. His intention in adopting the term was to promote awareness of the overall ecosystem, how to take care of it, how to talk about it. The process took twenty years - but it succeeded much on the merits of research that continually put forth the uniqueness of this particular region.

I have to say, its to the British Columbia side of the Salish Sea that I look for more drastic changes. With raw sewage still being pumped into the waterways and lax enforcement of regulations with the fish farming and whale watching industry - the impact of these practices is certainly felt mere miles away in U.S. waters. On both sides of the border, decisions on oil pipelines, oil tankers traversing the inner water ways, boat regulations, watershed protection impact not only our human livelihood but the multitude of species we co-exist with. It makes sense to me that we approach the dilemmas facing our industry needs in an ecosystem that is becoming increasingly fragile and vulnerable. We need to address these environmental and economic concerns with all the players at the table.

But what makes sense to me doesn't necessarily mean it makes sense to someone else.

In conversation, I refer to the waters of this area as the Salish Sea. On more occasions than not, I hear push back on the name change from what it was - the Puget Sound - here on the Washington side of the sea. Young and old, people want to cling to the old for reasons of comfort and a strange solidarity. "That's what I grew up calling it, I'm not changing now."...or ... "Salish sea - just more political correctness!"

I haven't quite figured out the resistance. Is it because "Salish" is a First Nations designation and honors the indigenous Coast Salish people who lived on and along side these waters long before Europeans started searching for a Northwest passage? Are folks remiss to give up the name Puget? The Puget Sound was named after Peter Puget, a naval officer and companion of George Vancouver in 1792 - and was originally designating the waters south of the Tacoma narrows.

There is a sense of lost identity by renaming anything. And, I suspect, renaming a body of water with an indigenous honor and getting rid of the colonizing western term can bring up the ways in which we culturally privilege and marginalize a certain power deferential. To name this sea "Salish" is to privilege that which our cultures have historically marginalized for centuries. Allowing "Puget" to fade away is to acknowledge the fading power of western white colonialism. It forces us to acknowledge that colonialism was forged on exploiting resources and meeting/creating the voracious needs of the dominant culture. Money and power. That's what colonialism comes down to - and its what brought so many white settlers - my ancestors included - to the northwest in the first place.

Is part of this vanishing Puget Sound identity a sense of lost power and entitlement? What does someone give up by changing the designation of these waters? What has to shift for them to let go of an insular image and explore a larger vision?

The renaming of Puget Sound to the Salish Sea marks a paradigm shift - so of course there is resistance. To embrace "Salish Sea" is to open oneself up to rethinking a belief - a story about territory and power and - yes - interconnection. To say "Salish Sea" is to understand that your actions on either side of the international border matter to the other side - that your actions have impact on the wildlife, the land, and the health of the region. We need this paradigm shift - not just for decisions regarding whether or not pleasure boats should be allowed to empty their holding tanks anywhere - but for catastrophic situations like oil spills. Washington state has well developed response plans for oil spills. B.C does not. Well, they are trying with new legislation - but many say that lack of resources will make the new rules hard to enforce ( New Rules Coming). Considering what could happen to the waters south of the border makes Canada's lack of thorough planning a catastrophic disaster in the making. When we acknowledge that there is no proverbial fence between our waterways - that the actions or lack of action by our neighbor will absolutely impact our home - then we can start to develop collaborative plans to mutually aid and support each other.

Look, Humans like to name things. We like to name something and then claim it. We have been doing this to land probably since the first time we gathered around a fire. A name means nothing to an island or a whale or a lake. But name them we do and always in the spirit of the time and place and at the whimsy of whomever is there with enough power to get the name to stick.

In this time and place, I want this new officially designated Salish Sea naming to stick hard. I want conferences like the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference to become powerful incubators for collaborative and generative dialogue promoting sustainable ecosystem health - which includes humans as well. I want to see more international dialogue like what the Oil Spill Task Force is doing but on a bigger scale (They work on small spill education). I'd like to see Canadian and U.S. regulations regarding whales and salmon and fish farms work towards similar goals. We can start stepping towards those types of difficult discussions when we all acknowledge that we are talking about the same ecosystem and leave the arbitrary boundaries behind.

I'd love more insight into the mindset of resistance. I'd really like to hear what that stance believes. I want to know what the fear is, the loss, the problem with a new name. If we don't listen the differences into conversation, we'll never find each other in the middle.