How You Can Help the Southern Resident Orcas:
Low Population Size
The original population of the Southern Residents is difficult for researchers to determine because of human impacts over the last 100 years. Capture operations in the 1960s and '70s for commercial marine parks took approximately 50 whales from this population. Also, shootings of orcas in the first half of the 20th Century were not uncommon; the whales were even used by the military for target practice.The Northern Resident Community of orcas frequents Johnstone Strait, B.C. (a water body immediately north of the Southern Residents' area), and numbers more than 200 individuals. It's likely the population of the Southern Residents was also once that large.
Once a population, such as the Southern Resident Community, becomes too small it is more vulnerable to normal environmental stressors such as food shortages, climate change and disease.
What You Can Do
Call or e-mail the Whale Hotline when you see orcas in the Pacific Northwest. For more than 20 years, The Whale Museum has offered the public the opportunity to call in whale sightings. The data is documented, providing an invaluable resource for researchers who are trying to learn more about the whales in order to help them survive. The toll-free number is 1-800-562-8832 or e-mail hotline@whalemuseum.org. (Click here to see a month's worth of Hotline data.)
If you have any information on historic shootings of Pacific Northwest orcas, please contact our Research Director at (360) 378-4710, ext. 26. Researchers are not sure of the original population size of the Southern Resident Community. If they can get a better idea, it will enable them to determine how depleted the current population is. Requests for anonymity will be respected.
If you find a dead or alive stranded marine mammal, call the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network at 1-800-562-8832. If still alive, the animal may be helped by trained network personnel. (The public is prohibited by U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act from touching, feeding, harassing or hurting marine mammals.) Also, The Whale Museum keeps data for the federal government on stranded marine mammals--another valuable tool for researchers.
