Final recommendations from orca task force, including whale-watching moratorium, announced

A task force created to protect and save Southern Resident orca whales presented its final report to Governor Jay Inslee Friday, including a years-long moratorium on orca whale-watching.

Southern Resident orcas have been listed as endangered since 2005. There are currently only 74 left in Puget Sound, the lowest level in about 30 years.

>>KIRO 7's coverage of previous orca task force meeting

One of the biggest problems the whales are facing is a lack of food caused by pollution, which kills the salmon population.

That’s led to the death of orcas, which are unable to feed on Chinook salmon, their main food source.

The report identifies four goals:

• Increase Chinook abundance
• Decrease disturbance of and risk to Southern Resident orcas from vessels and noise, and increase their access to prey
• Reduce the exposure of Southern Resident orcas and their prey to contaminants
• Ensure funding, information and accountability mechanisms are in place to support effective implementation

There are 36 recommendations of how to reach those goals, such as breaching, removing and spilling over dams to help get more salmon to the Puget Sound, increasing hatchery production and re-establishing salmon runs over existing dams.

Go Slow zones for ships, excluding ferries, were recommended to reduce sound and disturbances to the orcas' feeding areas, as well as a moratorium of three to five years for whale watching Southern Resident orcas. The group stressed the whale watching moratorium would not apply to other whale species.

The task force also said reducing stormwater pollution and cleaning up toxic chemicals was a priority.

The group believes if the measures are taken, there could be an annual two percent increase in the orca population in the early years.

Inslee said he would review the recommendations in the coming weeks and he and his staff would assess each one.

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