Species at Risk Act | Raincoast Conservation Foundation

We are headed to the Supreme Court for Southern Resident killer whales

Published on 2019 11 05 | by Misty MacDuffee, Wild Salmon Program Director & Paul Paquet, Senior Scientist | in For the coast

Southern Resident killer whales on the surface of the blue Salish Sea.

Today, Raincoast takes our work to protect Southern Resident killer whales from the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Working with Living Oceans Society and our legal team at Ecojustice, we have filed an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. We are arguing that the […]

Trans Mountain Expansion project background

Published on | by Raincoast | in Backgrounders

J50 and J42, Southern Resident Killer Whales swim in the Salish Sea.

Ecojustice, Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Living Oceans Society have worked through the courts to protect Southern Resident killer whales from the threats posed by the Trans Mountain Expansion project. Timeline 2013 – Raincoast and Living Oceans, legally represented by Ecojustice, file as formal intervenors in the National Energy Board’s review of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain […]

Saving endangered whales: Strategies from above and below the 49th parallel

Published on 2019 07 16 | by Misty MacDuffee, Wild Salmon Program Director | in Backgrounders

Southern Resident killer whales in the Salish Sea.

On May 10, the Canadian federal government announced its first wide-ranging measures to reduce the primary threats compromising survival of the salmon-eating Southern Resident killer whales reliant on the transboundary waters of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. Although federally listed as endangered in 2003 in Canada and 2005 in the US, little has happened […]

Cabinet rejects request for an emergency order for endangered killer whales

Published on 2018 11 09 | by Raincoast | in Interviews

Southern Resident killer whale, J50, looking emaciated in the Salish Sea.

Last week the Canadian federal government announced its refusal to issue an emergency order to protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales under the Species at Risk Act, despite the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans’ recommendation to do so. Misty MacDuffee joined Adam Stirling on CFAX 1070 on Monday, November 5th to discuss these measures…

We are taking the federal government to court to protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales

Published on 2018 09 05 | by Misty MacDuffee, Wild Salmon Program Director & Paul Paquet, Senior Scientist | in Conservation update

A Souther Resident killer whale is watched by a whale watching vessel: five logos on the right including David Suzuki Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Georgia Strait Alliance, Natural Resources Defense council and Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Today, we launched a lawsuit to ensure our federal government acts to protect the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. The lawsuit comes less than a month after Southern Resident J35 (Tahlequah) carried her deceased calf for 17 days

We won our legal challenge to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion

Published on 2018 08 30 | by Raincoast | in Conservation update

Today we can all celebrate a significant win in our efforts to protect Southern Resident killer whales, Fraser River salmon and the Salish Sea. This morning, the federal court of appeal unanimously ruled that the Canadian government’s approval of the Trans Mountain Expansion project violated its legal obligations to protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales […]

Backgrounder: Emergency order under the Species at Risk Act

Published on 2018 08 16 | by Raincoast | in Backgrounders

J16 and J26 on a smokey day in the Salish Sea.

Research by an international team of scientists, including Raincoast staff, showed that a modelled 30 per cent increase in the coast-wide Chinook abundance above the 1979-2008 average could increase southern resident growth rate by as much as 1.9 per cent…

Endangered killer whales still await real action

Published on 2018 07 10 | by Misty MacDuffee & Jeffery Young | in For the coast

L92 comes to the surface to get a better look around; spyhop.

The imminent threats to the survival of these whales require the federal government to take immediate action to reduce those threats, not ramp them up. The federal government already faces one killer-whale lawsuit for approving the Trans Mountain project and violating the Species at Risk Act…

Southern Resident killer whales need action, not delay

Published on 2018 03 21 | by Raincoast | in Interviews

Will Southern Resident killer whales survive the next one hundred years? Is the Federal government willing to finally implement the measures needed to protect and recover killer whales in the Salish Sea? How do Chinook salmon populations, shipping, fishing, whale watching, vessel noise and disturbance in the Salish Sea impact killer whales? Mark Bennae and Adam Stirling asked these questions and more…