On November 6, 2018, Lisa Hayward Watts attended a public meeting of Governor Inslee’s Southern Resident Orca Task Force (Orca Task Force) to translate research results from two UW SRP projects that have implications for orca conservation. The meeting was held at the Washington State Fair Events Center in Puyallup, WA.
Governor Inslee created the Orca Task Force through Executive Order 18-02 on March 14, 2018. His goal was to direct state agencies to take immediate actions to benefit the orcas that inhabit Puget Sound. It also established the Orca Task Force to develop recommendations for longer-term actions to support orca recovery and future sustainability.
Southern resident killer whales are the orcas who regularly spend part of the year in Puget Sound. Their proximity and visibility from local watercraft make them iconic and beloved throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Currently, Southern Resident Orcas are at their smallest population size in three decades.
UW SRP projects 1 and 3 both have implications for Orca recovery and conservation. Specifically, Project 1 has found that exposure to even low levels of metal contaminants like cadmium can reduce the sense of smell for salmon. Salmon are a primary prey species for orcas. Their sense of smell is thousands of times stronger than that of a dog. They depend on it to help them find food, avoid predators and return to their birthplace to spawn. Cadmium is a contaminant that ends up in Puget Sound from industrial sources and through the burning of fossil fuels.
Work by Clement Furlong and Judit Marsillach also showed recently that marine mammals don’t make Paraoxonase 1, a protein that provides terrestrial mammals with important protection from organophosphate pesticides. While a national ban on these compounds is being debated, organophosphates are still the most common pesticides used globally. In Washington State, they’re used on apples, strawberries, and wheat.
The presentation went well and led to follow up with The Whale Trail and Puget Sound Partnership.