Who’s really killing the killer whales?
Opponents of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion claim that the increased tanker traffic in the waters frequented by a subspecies of killer whale will cause their extinction. Killer whales, also called orcas, are an iconic species of marine mammals much beloved by Canadians. The subspecies, the southern resident killer whales (SRKW) was listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act in 2003.
By 2016, only 78 SRKW remained. Their known range extends from northern British Columbia to central California. During the summer months they concentrate off the southern end of Vancouver Island and are most frequently sighted in Haro Strait, Georgia Strait, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The Lead Now activist group says the whales will be “wiped out” by the new tanker traffic in the waters frequented by the SRKW. In an article on the website of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation titled “Choose Orcas — Not the Kinder Morgan Pipeline,” the band claims that “the noise pollution alone is enough to make the song of the southern resident killer whales go silent by wiping out this endangered species.”
But this is a false and unnecessary choice between pipelines and whales. To consider the real choices we need to examine why these orcas are endangered.
The three causes generally cited for the decreasing SRKW population are: Starvation: Fishing of Chinook salmon has reduced their primary food source, requiring them to travel further for less food. Contamination: Pesticides (such as PCBs) concentrate in their bodies because orcas are at the apex of the predatory food chain. Underwater noise: Ship propellers and engines noise can interfere with their echolocation of prey.
The inadequate efforts to ensure the whales’ survival that have been tried to date are well described in a recent article published by the World Wildlife Federation. While Ottawa recently announced new funding to protect whales, the orcas off the B.C. coast “are slowly starving to death. Funding for technology and research is important, but a cash infusion alone won’t feed the 76 orcas facing extinction today.”
Nor will stopping tanker traffic.
The new Kinder Morgan pipeline will bring a sevenfold increase in tanker traffic. That sounds like a lot, until we look at it in context. There are currently approximately 20 large ships per day associated with Vancouver, transiting Haro Strait, the core of the summertime habitat of the SRKWs.
The Trans Mountain pipeline will add approximately one tanker per day, which would be a five per cent increase in traffic. However, there will be larger increases in traffic by other vessels that are noisier than tankers. The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority 2017 Annual Report estimates that its cargo traffic will increase by an average of 3.7 per cent per year between 2018 and 2022, from 142 to 171 million tonnes, an increase of approximately 20 per cent over the four years.
Obviously, this will create a much greater noise effect than one additional tanker per day would. Interestingly, no one is suggesting that we must choose between orcas and more cargo ships, nor are there calls to stop the growth of cargo ships travelling to the Port of Vancouver. Yet, noise is noise, regardless of which shipping company creates it. No one explains why a modest increase in noise from tankers is unacceptable while a larger increase of noise from other ships doesn’t matter.
In fact, detailed studies of noise levels of different ships show that the loudest noise is created by the large container ships and vehicle carriers, which are noisier than tankers. Why the obsession with noise from tankers rather than greater noise from container ships?
Nor do pipeline opponents seem nearly as bothered about the very direct disturbance caused to the orcas by whale-watching tours. In its “Review of the Effectiveness of Recovery Measures for Southern Resident Killer Whales,” the federal Fisheries Department reports that “Positive steps taken to reducing threats to SRKWs include the development of whale watching guidelines in Canada and enforcement of whale watching regulations in the US.” The U.S. has already imposed legally binding regulations requiring a minimum distance for whalewatching ships to stay away from the orcas, but Canada has only a suggested guideline.
In the Vancouver area the SRKW are frequently surrounded and followed for hours by whale-watching vessels, usually several at a time. But since this industry is characterized as ecotourism, all those motors must be desirable noise, while one oil tanker a day — maybe one several kilometres away from the whales — is said to be the sole cause of their extinction.
Lance Barrett-Lennard, a distinguished Vancouver marine scientist, argues there are several short-term measures available to increase the whales’ access to salmon, including restrictions on fishing of Chinook salmon and whale watching in key whale-foraging sites. He also proposed an increase in the minimum approach distances for whale-watching boats, a reduction in the number of boats approaching the whales at any given time and licensing of a reduced number of commercial whalewatching vessels.
Barrett-Lennard, who served on the panel that drafted the Resident Killer Whale Recovery Action Plan, does not suggest singling out oil tankers as the sole problem with noise or banning the construction of the Kinder Morgan pipeline as the only way to save the orcas.
If there are environmental reasons to oppose the construction of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, the marginal increase it would create in underwater noise from tankers is not one of them.