Take action to request an emergency order for Southern Resident killer whales

Southern Resident killer whales are one of the most deeply revered and iconic wildlife species in Canada. And they are in crisis. Southern Residents were listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act in 2003, after the population had fallen from 98 to 82 individuals in less than a decade. This population of genetically and culturally distinct salmon-eating killer whales has now dwindled to just 74 individuals. 

Working with Ecojustice and five other conservation groups¹, Raincoast submitted a petition in June to the Honourable Dianne Lebouthillier, Canada’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, asking for an emergency order for the Southern Resident killer whales under section 80 of the Species at Risk Act.

It has been a month since our petition was submitted, and we are now asking you to contact your Member of Parliament to urge action on this request. We have drafted a suggested email and provided contact information to the relevant Ministers to send a strong, pertinent request that the government instate an emergency order for Southern Resident killer whales.

This small, slow reproducing, and endangered population of killer whales is at serious risk of extinction. They need your help now. 

Take action

Please address your email to your Member of Parliament. To find your MP and their email, input your postal code here and click on the minister, then the ‘contact’ tab

Please copy (CC) the following ministers in your correspondence:

• diane [dot] lebouthillier [at] parl [dot] gc [dot] ca, steven [dot] guilbeault [at] parl [dot] gc [dot] ca, jonathan [dot] wilkinson [at] parl [dot] gc [dot] ca, pablo [dot] rodriguez [at] parl [dot] gc [dot] ca, government [dot] relations [at] raincoast [dot] org
  • Honourable Dianne Lebouthillier, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
  • Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
  • Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
  • Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Transport

Suggested text 

I am writing to ask you to please communicate to the Ministers of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment and Climate Change, the urgency of recommending an emergency order to Cabinet to protect Southern Resident killer whales under section 80 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA).

Evidence indicates that unless much more effective measures are taken, the survival and recovery of these unique killer whales is unlikely.

For more than two decades, Southern Resident killer whales have faced significant threats to their survival and recovery, yet conditions in the marine waters where they reside have not improved. The noise and disturbance from vessels, combined with a lack of their preferred prey (larger, older Chinook salmon) and high levels of industrial contaminants are still preventing their recovery. On top of these ongoing threats, the transit of more oil tankers to and from the Trans Mountain pipeline and the expansion of the Roberts Bank container ship terminal, mean that these endangered killer whales face even busier, more polluted waters if no concerted actions are taken. 

SARA provides a suite of tools designed to help protect and recover at-risk species. Emergency orders are one such tool, which can be applied to species facing an imminent threat to their survival. Recent analysis indicates that the recovery of these killer whales is possible if adequate measures are enacted to reduce underwater noise, modify fisheries management and mitigate pollutant discharges in their waters. 

I am asking you and the federal government to use SARA’s emergency order tool to enact the concerted actions needed to protect and recover Southern Resident killer whales.

Sincerely,
(Your name)

More about our petition

In the petition, we ask for the following actions to address the imminent threats to the survival and recovery of the Southern Resident killer whales:

• Institute a series of measures to reduce noise and disturbance from all vessels traveling in or near Southern Resident foraging areas. Key actions include
  • expanding the current 200 metre approach distance to 1,000 metres to harmonize with Washington State legislation
  • requiring quiet vessel notations of Trans Mountain-associated vessels, and 
  • developing, adopting, and implementing meaningful underwater noise reduction targets and underwater noise management planning
• Prohibit further increases in shipping from existing and new federally-approved industrial developments in the Salish Sea until a cumulative effects management plan for marine shipping that includes underwater noise is in place.
• Implement prey management strategies to rebuild wild Chinook salmon abundance and population structure. Key actions should include
  • initiating a transition from marine mixed-stock, interception fisheries to river-based terminal areas, 
  • establishing an emergency management plan for Chinook fisheries which contain minimum thresholds for Chinook abundance in their foraging grounds, 
  • limiting the total fishing-related mortality of at-risk Fraser River Chinook salmon to less than 5%, 
  • and establishing an emergency drought management plan.
• Implement measures to increase wild Chinook salmon accessibility for killer whales, including extending the period of existing fishing closures in priority Southern Resident foraging areas.
• Prohibit all vessels from discharging scrubber wastewater in inland waters and the territorial sea and prohibit operational discharge from any vessel in Southern Resident critical habitat and the territorial sea.

The Southern Residents are endangered due to their small population size, their low reproductive rate, and anthropogenic threats. The three primary threats to the population are 1) environmental contamination; 2) acoustic and physical disturbance; and 3) unavailability of their preferred prey: larger, older Chinook salmon. Each of these threats independently limits or undermines the recovery of the Southern Residents. 

These threats also act synergistically, exacerbating one another. The risk of oil spills is another significant threat. As articulated in the Recovery Strategy, oil spills not only pose an acute threat to whale health, but also have the potential to make areas of critical habitat uninhabitable for extended periods of time.

The facts concerning the Southern Residents, the threats to them, and their current situation are well-known to the Minister of Fisheries and  Oceans’ department, DFO. DFO produced a Recovery Strategy and an Action Plan for the species, and, in collaboration with other relevant departments including the Minister of Environment and Climate Change’s department, the 2018 Imminent Threat Assessment.

The Southern Residents’ critical habitat, which has been identified as “necessary for [their] survival and recovery”, occupies large portions of the Salish Sea and waters off Southwest Vancouver Island. Critical habitat includes the attributes that sustain the Southern Residents, including adequate and available Chinook salmon, a quiet acoustic environment to allow for foraging and communication, and a level of pollution that does not cause harm to the population.

1. Ecojustice is representing the David Suzuki Foundation, Natural Resources Defence Council, World Wildlife Fund Canada, Georgia Strait Alliance,  Living Oceans Society, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

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