The Canadian Coast Guard is opening the first Marine Mammal Desk to protect orcas and other cetaceans on Canada’s west coast. The threats to orcas, also called Southern Resident killer whales, include noise and disturbance from boats, ship strikes, entanglements and reduced availability of their favourite prey, chinook salmon. The orcas are listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. The non-profit Orca Network reports that, as of September 2019, there were only 74 Southern Resident killer whales.
To protect them and other cetaceans, the Marine Mammal Desk will report sightings in real time and use them to advise vessel traffic. It will be staffed 24/7 and will use modern technologies such as radar, Automatic Identification Systems and real-time vessel movement information. The desk will also use reports of sightings from Coast Guard ships, light stations and aircraft operated by the government departments Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Transport Canada.
- Canada has strict rules limiting how close boats can get to orca whales. Vessel traffic is prohibited in some areas. (iStock)
The desk to ‘serve as our eyes and ears on the water’
The desk will support Transport Canada in its efforts to keep the whales safe by enforcing existing rules such as those that oblige vessels to keep a distance from them. There are areas where vessel traffic is prohibited. The government also suggests voluntary measures such as not fishing within 1,000 meters of orca whales, slowing down to seven knots or less within 1,000 meters of marine mammals, turning off echosounder and fish finders when not in use and putting engines in neutral idle to let animals pass if vessels are not in compliance with distance rules.
“The new Marine Mammal Desk supports the survival and recovery of the Southern Resident killer whale (orca) population, which continues to be a priority for the Government of Canada,” said Transport Minister Omar Alghabra. “It will serve as our eyes on the water, providing us with real-time information about how our efforts to protect the iconic Southern Resident killer whales are really doing.”