09/01/2009: "Meetings Wednesday On No-Go-Zone & Related Issues"

(A great photo advertising Whale Museum Wednesday lecture on the NOAA No-Go-Zone -no photo credit available)

A meeting and a lecture in Friday Harbor on Wednesday will be a kind of unofficial kick-off of the controversial plan by NOAA to make part of the west side of San Juan Island off limits to public access; with a few exceptions, one of which is commercial ship travel and fishing rights allowed by existing treaty rights.

The first meeting is the 8:30 to 10:30a.m. San Juan County Marine Resources Committee discussion the proposed vessel regulations issued by NOAA Fisheries for the Southern Resident Killer Whales during their regular meeting at the Islanders Bank Annex in Friday Harbor. Later in the day there is a Whale Museum sponsored lecture by a NOAA representative on the impact of boat generated sound on the orca.

As an advisory committee to the County Council, the MRC formed a subcommittee to develop background information and make an advisory recommendation on the proposed rule for the County Council. The MRC agenda will include an opportunity for comments from the public as part of the discussion.

Later in the day, the Whale Museum’s 2009 Lecture Series features Dawn Noren, PhD from NOAA NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Noren will discuss her study on ‘Behavioral and Bioenergetic Impacts of Vessel Presence in Southern Resident Killer Whales’. The lecture begins at 7:00 pm at the Whale Museum.

Both of these meetings have to do with concerns surrounding the health and well being of the Southern Resident Killer Whales, who are kind of like some of the land based mammals that spend several months each year in the San Juan Islands, typically between May and October. Unlike their distant human relatives, the whales are in a population decline.

Studies and show a population decline from 1996 to 2001 of 20%; a decline that in part resulted in their being were listed as an endangered species (U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2005). As a result, NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) approved a recovery plan in 2007.

Some of the risk factors believed to be responsible to the drop in their population include a drop in salmon populations, a high level of toxin intake, and vessel disturbance. It is that last one that has prompted the draft No-Go-Zone; or at least no-go for most people.

The draft regulations prohibit vessels from approaching closer than 200 yards to an orca. Regulations already in place forbid vessels from intercepting, parking in the path of orcas, and pursuing them.

The proposed half mile wide no-go zone for vessels extends from Mitchell Bay to Eagle Point along the west side of San Juan Island from May 1 to the end of September.

A formal public hearing will be held by NOAA at the SJI Grange in Friday Harbor on October 5, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The final date for receipt of public comments by NOAA is October 27.
More information is available at http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Marine-Mammals/Whales-Dolphins-Porpoise/Killer-Whales/ESA-Status/Orca-Vessel-Regs.cfm .