Fighting to protect Orcas from oil spills

Killer whales in BC remain in trouble despite some recent action by the federal government to designate their critical habitat.  That is why Dogwood Initiative and other environmental groups are in court to force the federal Departments of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to use all the tools at its disposal to protect Orcas

Declining salmon stocks, physical and acoustic disturbance from increased shipping, toxic contamination from industrial activities like oil tankers and pulp mills, and acoustic impacts from dredging, seismic testing and military sonar all threaten the Orcas with extinction.

Yet the order DFO issued under Canada’s Species At Risk Act (SARA) has many potential interpretations.  While Dogwood Initiative and the other groups welcomed the precedent-setting order, we remain concerned the order could be interpreted to only apply to limiting the destruction of the geophysical features of critical habitat. This narrow reading would not stop activities that negatively impact salmon populations, the main food source for resident killer whales, nor stop other damage caused by pollution, vessel traffic and acoustic disturbances.

So far DFO has refused to clarify what aspect of critical habitat the Order is intended to protect saying that the nature and scope of the Order will be determined over time through trial and error.

But leaving the lives of threatened and endangered Killer Whales to the whims of trial and error is not good enough. Dogwood Initiative and other groups want DFO to use the tools at its disposal to take action and we are going to court to see if the court agrees.

Time is of the essence. Scientists have identified as “potentially catastrophic” the impacts of oil spills in critical habitat. It has been reported that 22 Orcas died in the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Yet a number of new oil tanker/pipeline projects are proposed for the Kitimat and Vancouver ports that could bring hundreds of oil tankers into waters frequented by Killer Whales

Dogwood Initiative believes that one of the reasons DFO is not acting more aggressively to protect Killer Whale habitat is that they don’t want to interfere with proposals to bring tar sands tankers to BC waters, particularly Enbridge’s Gateway project proposed for Kitimat and Kinder Morgan’s expansion of its tanker terminal in Burnaby.

It is well established that the routine and accidental discharge of petroleum products, such as during an oil spill from a transiting or berthed tanker, can cause immediate mortalities of Orcas and can contribute to decreases in future survival rates through lingering effects on Orcas and on Orca food sources.

In their Recovery Strategy, the Scientists highlighted this risk saying both resident populations of orcas are at risk from an oil spill because “proposed expansion of tanker traffic in the north and central coast of BC. … If moratorium…is lifted…transport of oil may put northern resident killer whales at additional risk.…

The Scientists emphasized the impact an oil spill would have,

“Killer whales do not appear to avoid oil, as evidenced by the 1989 Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Less than a week after the spill, resident whales were observed surfacing directly in the slick (Seven whales were missing at this time, and within a year, 13 of them were dead. This rate of mortality was unprecedented, and there was strong spatial and temporal correlation between the spill and the deaths”

Dogwood Initiative believes that one way to overcome DFO’s resistance to protecting Orca’s critical habitat is to legislate an oil tanker ban on BC’s north coast and in other important Orca habitat.  

But even when that happens, the numerous other threats to Killer Whales will still need to be restricted by DFO. That is why a broader reading of the law is important. Hopefully, the Federal court will agree with us. We’ll keep you posted. 

Click here to see media release