Orcas, Boats Struggle to Share Space

SAN JUAN ISLANDS, Wash., July 7, 2006 — -- How do you protect an endangered species when it's a valuable tourist attraction?

That's the predicament in Washington State's San Juan Islands, where there are more commercial whale watch boats than there are orcas. That's created problems for the star attraction in this natural wonderland where the orcas often give onlookers a show worthy of their captive Sea World and Marineland cousins.

When good weather brings out private boats, there can be 100 or more boats trailing a dozen of the "whales." Orcas are often called killer whales, which is wrong times two. They aren't technically whales and their "killer" reputation is based on fear, not reality.

When people come out to see these "whales," they are viewing mammals that were recently added to the endangered species list, posing a challenge for the government agencies and the fish and wildlife agents who are trying to determine how to protect what is a popular tourist attraction.

The orcas of the San Juan Islands are among the most-studied marine mammals in the world. Seasoned whale watchers can easily identify each family or pod.

"Granny" runs J pod. She's 90 years old. Lummi, the matriarch of K pod, was born in 1910. Girls rule in this world. The newest one to arrive, K-39, is a few weeks old. Scientists hope the youngster's aunts will help her teenage mom, because in the past few years some of the young ones haven't survived because of their changing environment.

Orcas have some of the highest levels of concentration of toxins of any living creature. Samples from dead whales have contained levels of PCBs and other chemicals hundreds of times the maximum safe level for humans.

But that's not the only threat to their survival. They eat wild salmon and there aren't as many of them as there were just a few years ago.

"We can't get rid of the toxins right way, it will take decades to increase the numbers of salmon … but right now the least we can do is leave them alone," says Birgit Kriete of Orca Relief. Her organization advocates watching from shore.