I'm curious about a few things surrounding this study.
- How can a lay person access the hydrophone data from the existing ECHO project in Georgia Strait measuring vessel noise? (I've seen all of the participation percentage numbers, but none of the measurements themselves...)
- Since the physical experiment part of this study is now a few weeks old, why does the literature already state that underwater noise is a "key threat" to the recovery of Southern Resident population? (Chinook salmon numbers? Water acidity? PCBs?)
-Where can one look at the scientific results linking ship noise and Orca behavior? (YouTube "surfing orcas" to see how they react in a massive ships wake. I was told the orcas in this video were surrounded by whale watching vessels minutes before this video was taken)
-How do these same scientists feel about the constant following of the orcas by ambitious and ever bigger whale watching vessels? Is it really necessary to harass them all day in the name of educating the public?
-As the vessel slow downs are not stated to reduce whale strikes as that doesn't seem to be a problem in that specific area, who decided it was beneficial to have the ships make less noise but thus spend more time in their habitat by slowing down?
-Who are the scientists making these recommendations and where can we read their research / conclusions?
-How will "they" determine the effects of the slowdown on Orca behavior?
-what about the vessels that are going flat out to make 11 kts?
I fully support the slow down if it helps the Orcas, I'm just having trouble finding scientific research results from known experts correlating vessel noise and whale behavior. It seems weird to me that we are supporting vessels that actively search the whales out and hang around in very close proximity to them all day long, but are targeting vessels that pass through the general area to make changes to help them. Although I've only had Orcas in my wake a couple of times, I can't count how many times I've been in the middle of nowhere when Pacific White Sided Dolphins have actively searched me out to hang out in my bow wave or wake for a considerable amount of time with my throttles pinned. I hate to think I've been negatively impacting their behavior. Have I? Says who? (I am genuinely not trying to stir the pot here, I want to know.)
I would understand the reasoning if we were trying to reduce whale and whale calf strikes like they are on the East Coast, Los Angeles, Australia ect.
I just feel like "they" could do a better job of convincing us that there is sound reasoning (pun only sort of intended) that these slow down measures will help, and are not just a distraction to prove that we are actually doing something helpful while ignoring the very real problems with much more difficult solutions.