NOAA starts review of endangered Southern Resident orcas
Orca calf L125 swimming with its mother, Surprise. (Center for Whale Research)
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service says it’s starting a five-year status review of the Southern Resident orcas.
NOAA Fisheries published a notice in the Federal Register about the status review last week, The Skagit Valley Herald reported. The whales were listed as endangered in 2005 under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Since the 1990s, the number of orcas in the three family groups — called J, K and L pods — that make up the population has dropped from the high 90s into the 70s.