Northern Resident Orca in Sutil Channel

Now, B.C.’s ailing southern resident killer whale population is proving itself a wedge in one of the most headline-grabbing issues in the province.

In the 200-page decision released by the Federal Court of Appeal Thursday morning, effectively quashing the government’s approvals to build the Trans Mountain expansion project, B.C.’s southern resident killer whales are mentioned no fewer than 57 times.

The court ruled that the National Energy Board (NEB) review failed to assess the impacts of marine shipping – saying it was so flawed, it should not have been relied on by the federal cabinet when it gave final approval to proceed in November 2016.

Activists, lawyers and academics say the decision demonstrates environmental corners cannot be cut when governments seek social licence for major infrastructure projects – especially in a case where increased tanker traffic and vessel noise are known to be key threats to killer whales.

“It’s very clear from this decision that environmental assessment considerations and Species At Risk Act decisions aren’t optional, and they need to be taken seriously,” said Dyna Tuytel, a lawyer with Ecojustice, who represented conservation groups that filed a court challenge to the federal government’s approval for a pipeline expansion.

“There’s a risk in taking shortcuts,” said Eric Taylor, a professor of zoology at the University of B.C., and the chair of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

“It’s going to come back and bite you, as it’s done here.”…
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Our tour, led by Maya’s Legacy based out of Friday Harbor, followed a transient orca pod as it hunted off the shore of Patos Island. After feasting, the orcas traveled out to the open sea where they met up with another pod of transients. Partaking in what felt like both a ritual and a party, they rolled all over each other, slapped their tails against the water and leapt from the water in unison.

The feeling on the boat was electric. Orcas have a way of instilling awe in us humans, their emotions merging with our own, creating an experience that for many is downright spiritual. Their love of family and sheer joy at living life are qualities that so many of us strive for….
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"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get ocean governance that puts conservation and sustainable use first," Liz Karan told National Geographic last year. She’s the senior manager for the high seas program at the Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the many campaigning organizations that finally pushed this to the top of the UN’s agenda.

But out beyond the 200-nautical-mile EEZs is still the high seas, where nobody regulates the fishing. That’s half of the planet’s entire surface, containing 90 per cent of the world’s biomass, but back in the 1980s, when UN members were negotiating the Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), hardly anybody was fishing that far out.

Well, they are out there now, going where they want and taking as much as they want. Trawlers of up to 14,000 tonnes (about the displacement of a pre-First World War battleship) quarter the high seas, setting huge gill nets with a large "bycatch" of whales and turtles, dragging long-lines of up to 100 km in length that bristle with hooks, and using bottom-trawling methods that damage the seabed….
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Organised by the Sea Watch Foundation,the aim of the survey was to get a snapshot picture of the status and distribution of some of the species of cetaceans recorded in UK waters.

Systematic watches from both land and sea were undertaken at locations all around our coasts and inshore waters from Shetland in the north to the Isles of Scilly and Channel Islands in the south.

Over just this nine-day period, more than five hundred sightings of thirteen different species were reported, and more records are still coming in….
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Debs Martin of Forest and Bird said Hector’s dolphins were once abundant in this region, but they lacked the same protection as those in other parts of the country.

Hector’s dolphins are the smallest and one of the rarest marine dolphins in the world, and are endemic to New Zealand. They are distinct for their size and dorsal fin which looks like a “mickey mouse ear”.

“There are populations of Hector’s dolphins throughout Golden Bay and in Tasman Bay, and historically they were probably abundant in this area but their numbers have been lowered,” Ms Martin said.

Stewart Robertson has been running eco tours near Abel Tasman National Park for 16 years and told RNZ’s Checkpoint the sight of a pod of rare Hector’s dolphins had brought tears to the eyes of some of his customers.

Ms Martin said she had been prompted to help raise the profile of their plight, after a Golden Bay fisherman contacted her to express concern about the threat posed to them by gill nets….
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Todd Watkins, a local photographer, was boating with friends on Memorial Day weekend about 3 miles southwest of the East Pass. He came across a pod of what he thought were bottlenose dolphins, but when he looked closer he noticed a few of them appeared to have polka-dot pattern on their skin.

“We came across the pod and slowed down because they swam right across the bow of my boat,” Watkins said. “There were more bottlenose than spotted. I had never seen spotted dolphins here before.”

Atlantic spotted dolphins, also called “stenellas” because of their scientific name Stenella frontalis, are the polka-dot patterned twins of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. They’re the second most common type of dolphin found in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Horn, the marine mammal supervisor at the Gulfarium. They typically stay in water deeper than 60 feet, which keeps them away from the coastline.

“Some species make their movements in the summer months closer to shore, and they can be found in groups in as little as 20 to 40 feet of water,” Horn said….
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It’s not all great on the open water, though. While humpback populations are increasing, right whales aren’t doing so well-last year, 17 out of the 450 inhabiting the North Atlantic were killed in Canadian and US waters. Counting the communities has become so crucial, allowing researchers to monitor their abundance and distribution. Organizations like Gotham Whale and the Wildlife Conservation Society do so within the harbors and near Fire Island, while CRESLI does so on the eastern end of the bight.

But that’s not all the cruises are for. “Besides counting, my objective is to educate people about the whales, so they become informed stakeholders who will protect them,” Kopelman says….
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Through the twin-engine survey aircraft’s balloon windows, three experts have been recording cetacean activity in what is the first concerted effort of its kind to get an understanding of their populations in Greece’s seas, but also in this part of the Mediterranean. The data will be used to design measures to protect endangered species of whales, dolphins and porpoises but also to address issues that may be affecting the fine balances of the marine environment.

"Greece is considered an extremely important area for cetaceans, yet our knowledge about them is limited and erratic," said Costas Liarikos, head of environmental programs for the WWF Greece conservation group. "Initial efforts to improve the picture we have of them began about a decade ago with the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, but the systematic recording of all the different species is still a major challenge."…
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