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09/30/2005: "Pimping Wildlife for Economic Development?"

(Orca Relief photo)

By Dr. Birgit Kriete

This week, Friday Harbor hosted the 2005 Watchable Wildlife Conference, sponsored by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Tourism, Washington State Dept. of Transportation and NOAA.

As an environmentalist and animal advocate, I hoped for a balance of presentations regarding watchable wildlife in Washington State, if not for speakers to urge protective ways of watching one of Washington's greatest resources to preserve it for future generations.

Instead, I experienced a cookbook recipe for enticing more visitors to come to the islands, how to extend the tourism season and how to ensure that we have plenty of activities, sufficient accommodation and good infrastructure in place, and the desire to increase the Washington tourism income from $11.7 to $15 billion during the next few years.

Today, Washington State income from watching wildlife is around $1 billion on an annual basis. Watching wildlife is a major advertising point in attracting visitors to the San Juan Islands. But, at what cost to our wildlife is all of this happening?

Here in the San Juan Islands, and probably in Washington State, killer whales are the superstars of wildlife. Millions are spent every year advertising this resource; millions are spent by visitors seeing this wildlife. Orcas may soon be listed on the endangered species list, an even more enticing reason for tourists to see them. But at what, and whose, costs?

What is our community willing to share, and what are we not willing to share? To answer this, we must decide how we want to see our islands in five, ten and 50 years.

Do we go all the way to entice tourism or do we step back and re-assess the future of our environment and community? Just before the end of the conference, someone asked an excellent question, "Are we pimping wildlife for economic development?"

We have been encouraging visitors to come here to receive a profit off of a magnificent resource – our benefit, but with no return for wildlife. In our current way of thinking, we believe we have the ‘right' to travel, to see what we consider interesting. Tourism has taken over in many places around the world, edging out wildlife and civic life.

We need to have a visionary plan to protect our environment, how to save our wildlife from being ‘loved to death' and how to save our identity as islanders.



(Dr. Birgit Kriete is the Executive Director of the Orca Relief Citizens' Alliance. She may be contacted at Birgit@orcarelief.org.com )