Federal MP calls for action plan to protect killer whales
by Sarah Petrescu, Times Colonist
“Time is running out to save the southern resident killer whales,” says Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Randall Garrison, who has tabled a motion in Ottawa to help protect the endangered mammals.
In Victoria on Friday, Garrison outlined his action plan focused on the approximately 81 whales living in the waters off southern Vancouver Island. At a news conference at the Robert Bateman Centre, Garrison called for support for research and monitoring programs, including habitat threats, reduction of chemical pollutants in the Salish Sea, regulation of noise pollution and measures to increase Chinook stocks — the whales’ primary source of food..
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Misty MacDuffee from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation said Chinook stocks are so crucial, the Department of Fisheries should consider a temporary ban to replenish them.
“It’s short term pain for long term gain,” she said, adding at least a million Chinook are needed to feed the resident pods each year. “It all comes back to the health of the Salish Sea.”
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