Last year, regressive regulations were foisted on the whale watch community by rich shore owning people in the San Juans who courted the politicians in Washington D.C. with bogus ‘facts’ on whale watching boats stressing out the whales (you can read the research online that NOAA used to put a farther distance from the whales, and it clearly showed there was no evidence of whale watch boats affecting the whales, it was conjecture). Now research is showing that it’s the food, and perhaps, only additional conjecture, that when food is scarce, the boats, stress the whales out. Think that the Feds will reverse their decision? Not likely. It would have been much more useful to have had the Feds actually put in some bodies to enforce the existing regs rather than simply put more laws on the books that no one except legitimate businesses follow. But follow the money. Would be interesting to see how much those same shoreowners who shouted the loudest contributed to some of the current political campaigns.
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Not having enough Chinook salmon to eat stresses out southern resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest more than having boatloads of whale watchers nearby, according to hormone levels of whales summering in the Salish Sea. In lean times, however, the stress level normally associated with boats becomes more pronounced, further underscoring the importance of having enough prey, according to Katherine Ayres, an environmental and pet-behavior consultant who led the research while a University of Washington doctoral student in biology. Ayres is lead author of a paper appearing online June 6, in the journal PLoS ONE.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120606193452.htm
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: orca, Puget Sound, whales |
