California water plan could help Puget Sound orcas survive

A plan to restore salmon runs on California's Sacramento River could help revive killer whale populations 700 miles to the north in Puget Sound, as federal scientists struggle to protect endangered species in a complex ecosystem that stretches along the Pacific coast from California to Alaska.

Without wild salmon from the Sacramento and American rivers as part of their diet, the killer whales might face extinction. That's what scientists concluded in a biological opinion that could result in even more severe water restrictions for farmers in the drought-stricken, 400-mile long Central Valley of California. The valley is the nation's most productive farm region.

The plan has faced heated criticism from agricultural interests and politicians in California, but environmentalists said it represented a welcome departure by the Obama administration from its predecessor in dealing with Endangered Species Act issues.

The Sacramento plan, they add, represents a sharp contrast to the plan for restoring wild salmon populations on the Columbia and Snake rivers in Washington and Idaho. That plan, written by the Bush administration, essentially concluded that the long-term decline in those federally protected runs did not jeopardize the killer whales' existence, because hatchery fish could make up the difference.

The 85 orcas of the Southern Resident Killer Whale population travel in three separate pods, spending much of their time roaming the inland waters of Washington state from the San Juan Islands to south Puget Sound. During the winter they have been found offshore, ranging as far south as Monterey Bay in California and as far north as British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands. Each whale has distinctive markings, which allow them to be tracked.

In the mid-1990s, there were nearly 100 orcas in the three Southern Resident pods. The population fell to fewer than 80 in 2001. In 2005, the whales were granted federal protection as an endangered species. The whales have been studied closely for only 30 years or so, but historically there may have been up to 200 Southern Resident orcas.

Researches believe the decline has resulted from pollution that could cause immune or reproductive system dysfunction, and from oil spills, noise and other vessel disturbances, along with a reduced quantity and quality of prey.

With the largest up to 27 feet long and weighing up to 10,000 pounds, orcas are constantly on the prowl for food. They have been known to hunt in packs. Their meal of choice - salmon, particularly chinook salmon.

By some estimates, the orcas eat about 500,000 salmon a year.

The Sacramento and American river systems combined were once among the top salmon spawning rivers on the West Coast, trailing only the Columbia and Snake rivers.

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