Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales

The creation of a Recovery Plan is an important and required step following a species’ listing under the Endangered Species Act. The plan is generally created with input from federal, state, local, nongovernmental and tribal sources. It serves as a roadmap for recovery and outlines the actions necessary to restore the wild populations and the habitat that supports them, with the ultimate goal of recovering the species to the point they can be removed from the endangered species list.

The Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales, completed in 2008, identifies the knowns and unknowns about the Southern Residents, including listing the main threats as prey availability, contaminants, vessel effects, oil spills, and small population size.

Check out the story below to read a blog post on the Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales.

Video: J Pod, San Juan Island ©Cindy Hansen.

Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales

The creation of a Recovery Plan is an important and required step following a species’ listing under the Endangered Species Act. The plan is generally created with input from federal, state, local, nongovernmental and tribal sources. It serves as a roadmap for recovery and outlines the actions necessary to restore the wild populations and the habitat that supports them, with the ultimate goal of recovering the species to the point they can be removed from the endangered species list. As part of tracking their progress, NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency that oversees the management and recovery of the Southern Residents, reviews their ESA listing and progress on the Recovery Plan at least every five years. This review can determine whether recovery is on track, identifies accomplishments and challenges, and makes a recommendation on a status change (or not) under the ESA.

The Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales, completed in 2008, identifies the knowns and unknowns about the Southern Residents, including listing the main threats as prey availability, contaminants, vessel effects, oil spills, and small population size. The plan identifies a range of actions to address these threats and lists a recovery goal of 2.3 percent growth per year for 28 years. This number is based on a positive average growth rate through two generations. Unfortunately, we are far from achieving this goal, and while there have been hopeful periods of many new calves, overall the population has continued to decline since being listed in 2005, with only 73 individuals remaining. While the Endangered Species Act is an incredible piece of legislation that is responsible for saving many species from extinction - including some that share the orcas’ ocean home - it is clear that for the Southern Residents, a Recovery Plan alone is not enough to reach the ultimate goal of removal from the Endangered Species List. To be successful, the plan needs sufficient funding for implementation, a strong body of scientific data to inform the best path forward, political support and willingness to make the changes identified in the plan, and partnerships between governmental, tribal, and nongovernmental entities, as well as the public sector. We can all do our part by reaching out to NOAA and our elected officials at every level, urging them to dedicate the resources and have the will necessary to fully implement the recovery plan and lead to recovery of the Southern Resident orcas.

Follow this link to read the Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales: https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/15975

Photo: Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales ©National Marine Fisheries Service.

L25 Ocean Sun

Today we highlight a living legend, L25 Ocean Sun. She is currently the oldest orca in the Southern Resident population, estimated at 95 years old. Along with Tokitae/Lolita, who is still being held at the Miami Seaquarium, Ocean Sun is the only Southern Resident alive today who experienced the capture era. Imagine the horrors she witnessed as she watched dozens of orcas taken away from her community. It is possible that L25 lost immediate family members during the capture era – Tokitae is potentially a close relative but we won’t know for sure until DNA testing is done. Ocean Sun had one presumed daughter L23 who died in 1982, and her presumed grandchildren also died in the 1980s. But she now seems to enjoy playing a grandmother and caretaker role to other whales in her pod.

Read a story below about Ocean Sun babysitting young L pod members, written by naturalist and boat captain, Sara Hysong-Shimazu.

L25 "Ocean Sun" closely flanked on either side by L113 "Cousteau" and L119 "Joy" ©Sara Hysong-Shimazu.

L25 Ocean Sun

It was a foggy day out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca years ago when L119 was just about a year old and L113 was just a few years older. The group of whales known as the L12s, which is actually several different matrilines that closely associate, were foraging and socializing together. The whales were spread out in singles or in small groups and in the distance we caught sight of three fins, surfacing together.

As we drew closer we could see it was L25 "Ocean Sun" closely flanked on either side by L113 "Cousteau" and L119 "Joy". She seemed to be on babysitting duty. The younger whales were feeling a bit rambunctious, rolling around together and with their guardian as the three milled in the area, not really going anywhere that particular morning. I always find it intensely fascinating and lovely to watch some of the older whales closely associate with the youngest members of the pod. It reminds me of our own family gatherings. But eventually, just like us, we're tired of babysitting.

Ocean Sun gave a couple percussive slaps of her flukes and within a few minutes the group was joined by L77 "Matia", Joy's mother, who seemed to take charge of the young ones while Ocean Sun headed off into the fog. We later found her swimming with L41 "Mega" off a couple of miles from the rest of the family. Perhaps she was getting a bit of a break after a morning with the kids.

L95 Nigel and L43 Jelly Roll

Identifying important habitat areas for the Southern Residents and designating them as critical habitat was one of the benefits of their listing under the Endangered Species Act. When critical habitat was first designated shortly after the whales were listed, NOAA Fisheries deferred including the coastal waters of Washington, Oregon, and California due to a lack of information. NOAA Fisheries spent years collecting data on the coastal movements and activities of Southern Residents - where they were in coastal areas, and how they were using the habitat. They accomplished this through passive acoustic monitoring, dedicated boat surveys, diet sampling, and satellite tagging of individual orcas to learn more about the movements of the pods. Several adult males were tracked with satellite tags between 2011 and 2016, and the information gathered helped address the data gap in the orcas’ winter distribution. While this information helped grow our understanding of the orcas’ use of coastal areas and helped to show how important this area is for them, it did come at a cost. On March 30, 2016, the body of 20-year-old L95 Nigel was found in British Columbia, about a month after a satellite tag was deployed on him. His cause of death was determined to be a fungal infection, at least partly introduced into his system by the tag. Following his death, the project was suspended and has not resumed. While the tagging research came with unacceptable risks, it did lead to critical habitat revision that now protects the entire known U.S. range of the Southern Residents. This is Nigel’s Lasting Legacy.

Check out the blog post below to read a story about L95 Nigel and his mother L43 Jelly Roll from happier times, written by naturalist Bonnie Gretz.

Photo: Drawing of L43 Jelly Roll and L95 Nigel ©Bonnie Gretz. 7/11/99.

L95 Nigel and L43 Jelly Roll

7/11/99

While attending "Whale School" in the San Juan Islands with a professor from Orange Coast College in California, Dennis Kelly, I had a lovely encounter with L43 Jelly Roll (named after Jelly Roll Morton for some reason!), and her young calf, L95 Nigel (born in 1996). We found L pod in Haro Strait and were slowly cruising with them, when Jelly Roll surfaced right behind our boat, practically on the swim step! She went under the boat, and surfaced again within 5' of us, with the calf right next to her. Then she disappeared, and left him bobbing around on the surface. He checked us out, but patiently waited for mom to reappear. He then took off, and we could see her underneath him. The encounter lasted about 10 minutes, and I felt privileged to have "baby sat" little Nigel for Jelly Roll! I did see him again as he grew into a beautiful young male, and was devastated when I learned of his death in March of 2016. The drawing is from my whale journal, which I have kept from the beginning of my adventures with wild orcas and other cetaceans, from 1994....and happily still adding wonderful encounters to the third volume!