Whale City

It’s no secret that the killer whale population in Puget Sound has been declining steadily over the last decade. Chemical pollution, sewage, PCBs and other contaminants in prey fish, water-vessel traffic and the resulting underwater noise, and the declining salmon populations all seem to play a part in the decreasing numbers of our local resident orcas, the southern resident killer whales. Seven more whales went missing last year, and researchers strongly suspect they starved to death. We all know that pollution is bad, already, though, right? So it’s perpetually a surprise to me when I hear about things like the approval of a proposed Maury Island strip mine project, a plan that residents have apparently opposed for years.

It’s both fascinating and frustrating (in a bizarre, trainwreck kind of a way) that so much talking about protecting, preserving, and cleaning up the Sound happens when the public is watching . . . but then projects like this get approval, mostly when no one happens to be looking.

Rep. Sharon Nelson, who represents the 34th Legislative District, recently wrote an opinion piece for the Seattle PI available online. In the piece, Nelson says, “If we’re going to save Puget Sound, we have to stop doing things like building new strip mines where killer whales feed.” Apparently, there are a lot of other folks who feel the same way.

Now, that may sound like a complete no-brainer. It certainly does to me. But then, I honestly don’t care whether or not some mega-corporation gets the results they want for their mega-dollars spent lobbying to build pet projects on top of local people who hate the very idea of those projects. On the whole, I personally wouldn’t ever greenlight this project—no matter how many (temporary) local jobs it supposedly means—for the potential damage to the health of Puget Sound, critical shoreline habitat for already-declining chinook salmon, and the safety of our few remaining resident killer whales. Admittedly, I’m a transplant to the Puget Sound area, but in the nearly ten years I’ve lived here, it’s seemed pretty clear to me that the human residents here DO care about the water, the environment, the salmon, and yes, the whales.

The frustrating part of environmental sell-outs like this, is that this sort of thing is too often done behind the public’s back. If you’re interested in getting involved to help preserve Puget Sound and our local marine habitat, here are a few sites to get you started with more information:

• Preserve Our Islands
• The Center for Whale Research
• PugetSound.org
• Puget Soundkeeper Alliance

There are a good many other local organizations, as well, where you can make a difference. Honestly, just picking up trash off a stretch of local beach helps make a difference.

We still have whales today, because years ago, people cared enough to start making sure they were protected. If there are going to be whales in another few decades, it’ll be because we cared enough to do the same.

Finally, the whales are getting the attention they deserve in the form of a TV series on Animal Planet called Whale Wars, and no it’s not about whales fighting with each other.  Whale Wars follows the efforts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as it battles to end illegal whaling in the icy waters of the Antarctic.

Paul Watson is captain and founder of Sea Shepherd, a radical environmental group dedicated to ending illegal whaling.  For several years, Watson and a group of staff and volunteers have engaged in a campaign every winter to find and stop Japanese ships that hunt whales in the name of research, attempting to stop them by any means necessary.  Last winter, the crew stopped the Japanese from slaughtering 500 whales, but not without confrontations including gunfire, flash grenades, a dramatic hostage situation and full-throttled chases through the Antarctic Seas.

“This is an opportunity for millions of people around the world to wake up to the fact that hundreds of whales are being illegally slaughtered under the guise of research and we as the human species have to say enough is enough,” said Jonny Vasic, Director of Video and Film Projects for Sea Shepherd.

We, at Whale Watch salute the Sea Shepherd for their brave efforts, and we hope many of you will tune in on November 7, on the Animal Planet network.

A couple of months ago, I published a picture depicting Sarah Palin clubbing an Orca and I thought it was pretty hilarious given the political climate and my over-all opinion of the Alaska Governor as the biggest threat to nature, wildlife, whales, polar bears, wolves, women, children (born and unborn), humanity; basically planet Earth. I also included a link to the Anchorage Daily News, as just one example of her attitude toward her native Alaska wildlife, where it was reported that Palin opposed placing the white beluga whales of the Cook Inlet under the protection of the Endangered Species Act because it would harm the local economy.

But, despite opposition from Governor Plain, the Bush Administration is placing the white belugas of Cook Inlet on the endangered species list. There has been a sharp decline in beluga population since the 1970s when there were over 1,200 of them, now there are only 375 belugas left in the region.

The Alaska Governor called the move “premature”. This editorial from the New York Times succinctly spells it out :

“Presumably, the time for listing the belugas will be mature when the gas-and-oil infrastructure in Cook Inlet is in place and the shipping lanes are running full and the fishing industry is going gangbusters. After humans have gotten everything they want out of those waters, then it will be time.”

The author concludes:

“What makes Ms. Palin an especially effective anti-environmentalist is that she comes from Alaska. She touches the expansionist chord, the ancestral American feeling that there will always be enough nature, although it is already clear that the systemic balance of nature is beginning to break down over much of the globe.”

Mrs. Palin touts herself as a hard-core pro-lifer, but it’s clear that her feelings about the protection of life don’t extend to animals (or those “without a voice”, as she likes to say). Her attitude about the environment and the animals who inhabit the world don’t count in Sarah Palin’s pro-oil and pro-gas-line-agenda.

In many ways, the embarrassment that is her VP candidacy has a been a blessing in disguise. Now that she is in the spotlight, so is Alaska, as are issues of environment vs. human impact. And, if you ask me, so too should be her filthy, dirty record.