Below the waves, the cacophony of sound seems overwhelming when heard via the "Orcasound" hydrophone network, I can't even imagine what that constant clanging, throbbing and humming is like for an animal that relies totally on the feedback sounds from it's watery environment.
This year's ACS program has a component focused on the impacts of marine ecotourism - not just noise pollution, but also the physical presence of boats and the potential to impact behavior.
Many years ago, on a safari trip to Kenya, I was dismayed to find all of the tourist buses completely surrounding a mother and her cheetah cubs. There was quite simply no way out for them, and as the only feline diurnal hunters, biologists quickly became concerned that their hunting was being severely disturbed and contributing to their decline. Sitting out on the water, I could sense a similar danger for the orca.
Some of disturbing factoids presented:
- In the Puget Sound/Salish Sea, marine ecotourism is a $50 billion dollar industry, creating a million jobs and opportunities for 121 million participants.
- In the Salish Sea, there are 75 licensed operators, generating $5.7 million in ticket sales from 350,000 "spectators" and yet only two of these companies donate to Sound Watch or Strait Watch, to provide public education and awareness for the whales of which they profit
- Between May and October - peak viewing for the "resident" orca, the boats are out with the whales 12 out of 24 hours a day, with an average of 14-20 boats at a time.
- There are 100 recorded violations of the "Be Whale Wise" guidelines (I failed to note whether this is daily or not, but I have a feeling it is, given the amount of boat traffic - many personal recreational boat users who are simply not aware that there are rules of the road when it comes to marine mammals there's a 100 meter exclusion zone in Canada, 200 meters in the US....
- Daytime resting for orca is down from 25% to less than 7%
- There are toxic impacts from boat exhausts - diesel is a particularly bad substance as toxins bind to it
- The "summer fog" (marine inversion layer) traps pollutants also
When one considers on top of all of this, the stressors of warming oceans, shifting prey sources, declining Chinook salmon, it seems our desire to see the orca in their natural habitat may also be adding stress to their lifestyle.
I don't ever want to see orca (or other cetacea) in captivity again, and yet I feel a need to see them in the wild. I will try to do my part by spotting from land, following alerts and other people's photos. But I know that now and then, I really want a chance to be on the water and hearing up close and personal the exhalation. I will find the companies that are doing their part to be whale wise and find out who is giving back.
