Feds protecting orcas through distancing, fishery rules

VICTORIA — For a third year in a row, Ottawa has ordered fishery closures and vessel regulations to protect critically endangered southern resident killer whales.

Measures by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans focus on primary threats to the orcas: loss of access to Chinook salmon stocks, acoustic and physical disturbance and contaminants.

The commercial and recreational salmon fishery will be closed in a portion of Swiftsure Bank from July 16 to Oct. 31, and in Juan de Fuca Strait from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31.

The DFO also is enforcing a new closure for commercial and recreational salmon fisheries in the southern Gulf Islands, where closures will be triggered by the first confirmed presence of southern resident killer whales.