Time for federal hatcheries on the Fraser. Orcas need them.

OldBlackDog

Well-Known Member
Low orca birth rates linked to lack of Chinook salmon
More than 2/3 of southern resident orca pregnancies failed over a 7 year period says new research
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A new study says killer whales in the southern resident population off the B.C. and Washington state coast are having problems reproducing because of a shortage of food. (Dave Ellifrit/Centre for Whale Research)
Endangered killer whales that frequent the inland waters of Washington state and British Columbia are having pregnancy problems because they cannot find enough fish to eat, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed hormones in excrement collected at sea and found that more than two-thirds of orca pregnancies failed over a seven-year period. They linked those problems to nutritional stress brought on by a low supply of Chinook salmon, the whales' preferred diet.

"A large number of whales are conceiving, but when nutrition is poor, they don't sustain those pregnancies," said Sam Wasser, lead author of the paper and a biology professor at the University of Washington.

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Orca babies J50 and J51 swim with adult J16 with Mt. Baker in the background. (Capt. Heather MacIntyre/Maya's Legacy Whale Watching)

Southern resident killer whales along the West Coast have struggled since they were listed as endangered species in 2005 by the U.S.. They now number just 78, down from a high of 140 decades ago. The whales face threats from a lack of food, pollution and boats.

The new study, to be published Thursday in the journal PLOS ONE, zeroes in on food supply as an important stress factor among these fish-eating whales. Unlike other killer whales that eat marine mammals, the orcas that spend the summer in Puget Sound primarily eat salmon, mostly Chinook.

Chinook salmon in decline
Many runs of Chinook salmon along West Coast are listed as threatened or endangered due to a host of factors, including loss of habitat from urban development, dams, fishing, pollution and competition from non-native fish.

Toxins that accumulate in the whales' fat and are released when the animals starve and metabolize that fat also play a role in the pregnancy problems.

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Orca baby J51 was born in 2015. Research says two-thirds of southern resident killer whale pregnancies are lost. (Valerie Shore/Eagle Wing Tours and Shorelines Photography)

"Food is the driver. But what we can't yet say is how much of that then is affected by its interaction by toxins," Wasser said, adding that there were not enough samples to say how influential the toxins are.

Sniffer dogs and whale poop
Using dogs trained to sniff out whale poop, a team of scientists collected nearly 350 excrement samples from 79 unique whales in inland waters of British Columbia and Washington state between 2008 and 2014.

Back in the lab, they analyzed it for the hormones progesterone and testosterone and assessed whether the orca was pregnant and at what stage. They also used DNA to determine the identity, sex and family line of the whale. A pregnancy was deemed successful if the female whale was later observed with her calf.

Their analysis showed 35 orca pregnancies between 2008 and 2014. Eleven calves were spotted with their mothers in successful births. The Southern resident killer whales are individually identified and intensely tracked, so researchers know when calves are born to one of three families of orcas, known as the J, K and L pods.

Nutritional stress
The study found 24 unsuccessful pregnancies. No calves were seen in those cases, indicating that the whales lost the babies or the calves died shortly after birth. Those females showed signs of nutritional stress — more so than those who gave birth successfully.

Researchers also recorded the number of boats in the area when collected the whales' scat. They studied two hormones that play important roles in physiological stress and were able to differentiate between stress from poor nutrition and stress from boat traffic.

The team compared the hormone data to abundance records of two Chinook salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest.

The data over time suggest the orcas experienced periodic nutritional stress, partly caused by variation in the timing and strength of the salmon runs in the Columbia and Fraser rivers, the study said.

The study said improving those Chinook salmon runs could help save the orcas.
 
For a guy who does not seem to understand that climate is an average of actual weather conditions not forecasts you got this one right!!

This was in the Seattle paper.

Decades ago the US pitched-in to save Fraser river Sockeye when a slide in Hells Canyon blocked the river. Maybe we can do that again with Orca food. Good luck with Mr "America First" in charge, although I predict that won't be for long.
 
There's been no shortage of hatchery enhancement of Fraser and Washington chinook stocks and the simple fact is hatcheries have very little success in establishing or rebuilding stocks. The failure of hatcheries and their negative impact on wild stocks is the source of a great deal of litigation south of the border, particularly as it pertains to impacts on ESA listed chinook and steelhead populations throughout Washington and Oregon.

Hatcheries are capable of producing a single cohort of adult salmon with some success, as evidenced by the ocean ranching industry and hatchery adult returns that supplement commercial and recreational harvests. Notwithstanding the complicated issues that arise from releasing billions of additional smolts into the ocean to compete with wild stocks in an era where we're just starting to learn the limitations of ocean productivity, or the harm to stock sustainability by artificially bumping return numbers that allow for harvest fisheries that reduce the effective spawning population (i.e. wild fish), ocean ranching hatchery chinook may be a possible solution. I'd hope the authorities would look to the Alaska model, where pen raised smolts to be "ocean ranched" need to be isolated from estuaries of spawning streams to minimize straying interactions with wild stocks.

Interesting that loss of habitat, development and pollution are all mentioned as contributing causes, yet when the conservatives gutted the Habitat Protection branch of DFO 5-years ago it got barely a whimper from the sport fishing and environmental groups. However when the stream restoration group was recently cut (a group that plays with sticks and stones in streams, an activity that people like to participate in notwithstanding the volumes of science that show's restoration techniques utilized over the past century are even less effective than hatcheries) there was a huge outpouring of support that ultimately led to the reversal of the cuts. So, today we have barely a fraction of the habitat and environmental protection that BC's salmon stocks have had historically but a fully resourced group to try to "restore" a small fraction of the impacts allowed to occur annually. Makes perfect sense, right? Hard to imagine why salmon stocks are struggling???

Cheers!

Ukee
 
Hatcheries yes but also habitat improvements.

We also need everyone to get out of courtroom and get to work as a group. Not one group taking away access so it can get more. That doesn't work. First nations needs to work with and not against the rec and commercial sector.

We also need Ottawa to empower our local pacific region DFO to be able to enforce pollution on the rivers and streams across BC. That means to take away the power of the BC ministry of environment if in fact a waterway is polluted or habitat disrupted. That also goes for logging operations. We need to get the message to industries across that it is not allowed to harm our streams/rivers to make more profit.
 
Since some rivers are near extinct of salmon, why not put a mass hatchery program in place just for sheer numbers. Similar to the Columbia River.
 
IMHO hatcheries are part of the solution to feed Southern Resident orcas. They can help supply fish for the endangered orcas to eat while longer term solutions like watershed protection, habitat restoration and true sustainable harvesting plans can take place. If we continue to do nothing the numbers of chinook will continue to decrease over time and the SR orca populations will diminish and we will face potential long term recreational and commercial fishing closures. We need to stop fighting over the declining numbers of chinook on the Fraser River and work to help produce more salmon for all harvesters, especially the orcas!
 
I think we are quickly approaching a similar scenario that the east coast cod fishery had to suffer through. Unless this problem is quickly and seriously addressed I see a future complete moratorium as the only hope left to stop the bleeding. Now is the time for DFO to get all politics out of fisheries management and to manage. All fisheries need to be 100% accountable and meet DFO targets. Watersheds need to be rehabilitated to maximize wild salmon production, those who pollute watersheds need to pay a severe price and there should be a government funded media campaign to educate the public about the importance of west coast salmon stocks to the entire west coast ecosystem, including SR Orca, Bears, Eagles etc. Then fund the work of bringing these fish back. Today not tomorrow!!!!!
 
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There was an article in the Seattle Times about the Elwa river dam removal/restoration. Chinook already spawning 20-30 miles above where the dams were. They are figuring it will be 20 years to recovery. Don't think the whale people wanna wait 20 years.

I think habitat restoration, hatcheries, & reduced Chinook mortality are all needed.
 
I agree on the habitat restoration but the key to chinook salmon recovery is to stop killing what we have left. That means all user groups and we all know how that will fly.
 
I'm willing to stop fishing indefinitely if it means saving the effected species in the ocean. It's simply not sustainable this way. Even if it all ceased for 5 years, can you imagine the changes we'd see?

^ Everyone has to be accountable in some form. Yes it hurts the economy, thousands, if not millions of jobs on the whole. Worth it to save species that have no choice - We have the responsibility to make the right, or wrong one for them.
 
There are some user groups who would be deeply financially affected by a complete closure.
Some (not all) of these groups would lobby huge pressure to keep it open.
While it would hurt, I would understand a complete closure as long as it applied to everyone involved.
 
I strongley believe that s sport sector pushing for a complete moriforium for everyone is the best hope to get Fraser River FN to redirect their fight away from us and towards DFO. They would understand that a serious recovery plan with Fraser Chinook stocks with priority on habitat, water and enhancement would benifit them more than continuing to **** us off.
 
Stopping the inriver netting from FN would have these stocks rebound very quickly.

Pointing a finger at one group is not the final solution, neither is a moratorium on fishing it needs to be a combination of many different groups and changes hatchery, habitat restoration and so on. And even then warming oceans...

So pretty much impossible.
 
Different fisheries and different user groups target different runs and different species dependent upon location and timing (e.g. rec fishing targets Chinook and coho, mostly - while gill netters target sockeye, mostly, etc.). The Holy Grail and the challenge is to leave the weak stocks alone. And as mentioned - warming waters and other WQ-related issues also affect stock trajectories and population numbers - and there is also the debate about predators. What we see - or don't see - is the accumulation of those impacts on the spawning beds.
 
What the FN bands and many individuals in both the sport and commercial sectors have to get their heads around is that nothing will get done fighting with each other...it will just be more of the same and that isn't bringing fish back. FN, sports and commercial just have to agree on one principal (and we can even continue agree to disagree on everything else) that we will accomplish what we all want (more fish and opportunity) by working as a single voice against DFO or government and force them into a serious Fraser Chinook recovery effort. FN have the political clout and the recreational and commercial sectors have numbers, financial resources and some good fisheries experts. It would make a great team if we could just all agree that on this one issue we have to work as a unit and get it done.
 
What is the evidence that putting a moratorium on catching wild Chinook will make the stocks increase? We have run that policy with wild Coho for 20 years and I for one do not see that it has done any good.
 
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