The Plight of Southern Resident Killer Whales: Wicked Problems and Land & Water Governance Challenges

CLICK HERE FOR REPORT SUMMARY

Southern Resident Killer Whales are a culturally important whale community in the Northeast Pacific. After over twenty years listed as endangered, it still struggles to recover. Many external and intrinsic factors inhibit its recovery. Anthropogenic threats such as declining prey abundance, increased disturbance, and contamination have cumulative impacts on the population. The recovery of Southern Resident Killer Whales has been artificially inflated due to artificial barriers. Artificial boundaries inhibit the recovery of Southern Resident Killer Whales through fragmented management and barriers to information sharing. Furthermore, the Salish Sea is plagued by many competing interests that put pressure on the transboundary habitat of the population. The traditional feeding grounds of whales have been disrupted by human activities such as fishing, shipping, and pollution. In addition, the construction of dams and other infrastructure has altered the flow of rivers and streams, affecting the availability of salmon, a primary food source for whales. All these activities are managed through various levels of government on both sides of the border. In order to ensure the recovery of Southern Resident Killer Whales, the artificial boundaries must be recognized and mitigated. An integrated management approach that considers the Salish Sea and related watersheds as a whole ecosystem is necessary.