The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been petitioned by California-based Pacific Legal Foundation to remove a group of orca whales from the endangered species list. The petitioners claim that this group of whales does not need to be protected because they’re part of a larger population. The uniform consensus seems to be that because the population is question is seen as a separate sub-species of orcas and thus technically illegal to give them protection by keeping the them enlested in the endangered species list.
The situation is not that simple. Orcas are threatened, even endangered by many human actions, such as poaching for marine parks.
Orcas, or killer whales, are the largest of the dolphins and one of the world's most powerful predators. In the eastern North Pacific Ocean, observers have recognized that various groups of killer whales show physical and behavioral differences. They categorize pods of eastern North Pacific killer whales into three ecotypes: "transient", "resident", and "offshore".
Killer whales hunt in deadly pods, family groups of up to 40 individuals. There appear to be both resident and transient pod populations of killer whales. These different groups, social in behavior, may prey on different animals and use different techniques to catch them. Resident pods tend to prefer fish, while transient pods target marine mammals. All pods use effective, cooperative hunting techniques that some liken to the behavior of wolf packs. No attack on a human by an orca has ever been recorded in the wild.
In 1946, 14 countries formed the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by signing the International Whaling Convention. The IWC set regulations of whaling to protect the future of whale stocks as a resource to humans.
Currently the IWC has no jurisdiction over dolphins such as orcas. However, now that the harvest of most large whales has stopped, the IWC has expressed an interest in playing a role in managing smaller cetaceans as well.
NOAA initially decided that the southern resident whales in the J, K and L pods were not a distinct population, but their findings were overruled by a U.S. District Court judge in 2003 and further study led to the conclusion that they are a distinct population. They were subsequently listed in 2005.
The importance of protecting orcas is simple: the IWC must not be allowed to hunt orcas, because they are not whales but dolphins, and therefore deserve the protection status.
So, there are two options, lift the listing and let the business expand, or let business alone and protect both the orcas and their habitat and migration route. There is only one answer: protect the orcas, their habitat and their migration route.
