Give the Southern Resident Killer Whales a lifeline now

I am concerned about Southern Resident Killer Whales and urge you to intervene.

For more than 20 years, the orcas have been designated as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and listed under the Species at Risk Act. We've long known they face major threats like noise and vessel disturbance, contaminants in their waters and a decline of their main prey, Chinook salmon.

Now that the Trans Mountain Expansion Project is operational, the orcas face a sevenfold increase in oil tanker traffic. That means more noise, and risk of vessel strikes and oil spills.

When your government approved the TMX in 2019, it promised to implement 16 recommendations from the Canada Energy Regulator to address these heightened risks. It has so far failed to do so.

Southern Resident Killer Whales can't wait any longer.

I urge you to recommend an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act to give Southern Residents immediate protections. These protections should be:

1. Implement measures to reduce noise and disturbance from vessels travelling in or near Southern Resident foraging areas. Key actions include expanding the current 200-metre vessel distance buffer to 1,000 meters to harmonize with Washington State legislation, requiring quiet vessel notations for tankers serving the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) terminal, and developing, adopting and implementing meaningful underwater noise-reduction targets.

2. Implement prey-management strategies to ensure rebuilding of Chinook salmon populations. Key actions include establishing an emergency management plan for Chinook fisheries that contains minimum thresholds for Chinook abundance, limiting the total fishing-related mortality of at-risk early Fraser River Chinook salmon to less than five per cent, transitioning marine mixed-stock fisheries to river-based terminal areas and establishing an emergency drought management plan.

3. Implement measures to increase wild Chinook salmon accessibility for Southern Residents, including extending the period of existing fishing closures in key foraging areas.

4. Prohibit further increases of shipping from new, federally approved, industrial projects in the Salish Sea until a cumulative-effects-management plan that addresses underwater noise is in place, as promised by Cabinet when it approved TMX.

5. Prohibit discharge of scrubber wastewater, bilge and greywater from any vessel in or near the southern residents' habitat.

There are only 74 Southern Resident Killer Whales left, and they need an urgent lifeline.

Sincerely,

[your name]