Lawsuit Calls for ‘Whale Protection Zone’ As More Southern Residents Die SEATTLE— Conservation groups sued the Trump administration today for ignoring a legal petition to protect critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales in the heart of their Salish Sea habitat. Today’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington by the Center for Biological Diversity and Orca Relief Citizens’ Alliance (ORCA), follows news that three more of these starving orcas are presumed dead, dropping their population to just 73. The National Marine Fisheries Service was notified last August that its failure to respond to the 2016 petition violated federal law. The proposal calls for a ...

Lawsuit Prompts Consultation to Save Southern Resident Killer Whales PORTLAND, Ore.— Federal, state and tribal fishery managers and experts on critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales begin meeting today to discuss how West Coast salmon fishing is limiting availability of the starving orcas’ main food source. The National Marine Fisheries Service recommended the working group after being put on notice in December that its outdated analysis violated the Endangered Species Act as this West Coast orca population dropped to 75. The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Ad Hoc Southern Resident Killer Whale Workgroup holds its first meetings today and tomorrow in Portland, Ore. The Center for Biological Diversity and ...

SEATTLE— The Center for Biological Diversity has won a victory in the legal battle to force the Trump administration to protect the West Coast habitat of the last remaining Southern Resident killer whales.  The National Marine Fisheries Service has committed to proposing a rule acting on the Center’s 2014 petition for orca habitat protection off Washington, Oregon and California. An expanded designation of critical habitat has to be proposed by early October to help the critically endangered orcas, which are starving for lack of salmon and being hurt by boat traffic and water pollution.  The Center sued the administration last year for delays in protecting orcas ...