Meet Dr. David Bain – Orca Conservancy's Vice President of the Board of Directors

Orca Conservancy has an incredible group of people who serve on our Board of Directors. This month we are featuring our own Dr. David Bain — a Cetacean Scientist and someone we are privileged to serve with. Dave serves as Board Vice President and helps us to focus on key projects from an eco-diversity perspective. In addition, Dave is often the one who speaks to groups and organizations about our Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs) and has been on the faculty of the University of Washington. I sat down with Dave and wanted to get more info on him!

SN: Dave, we know you today, but tell me about your childhood, and where you are originally from?

I'm from Silver Spring, Maryland.  I spent much of my childhood roaming the Appalachian Mountains.  I enjoyed being outdoors observing wildlife.  As I was finishing high school, I started learning about marine life, so that is what I decided to focus on when I entered college.  If I had started college a couple years earlier, I probably would have gone into forestry.  Since forests are where whale food grows, I now split my time between forests and the sea.

SN: What did you study in college, and what were the deciding factors to help you come to becoming a killer whale scientist?

My undergraduate majors were Biology and Psychobiology with Physics (a recipe for studying whale communication).  I did my Ph.D. in Biology.  I started at New College, which required us to do month-long independent study projects.  I did my first one on bottlenose dolphins, and my second one on killer whales.  That second month has lasted over 40 years.  I stuck with them because killer whales are complicated enough to be interesting, but simple enough that we can obtain a steady flow of answers about them.  It helps that they have more fat and less hair than I do... (Funny, Dave!)

SN: What has been the biggest surprises, revelations, etc., when it comes to the SRKWs?

The biggest surprises were that offspring of both sexes don't disperse, and that they have dialects.  The biggest revelation is how distinct are from other killer whales.  Their long gestation period and longevity were surprises, though they probably should not have been.  The high pre-natal and neonatal mortality rates in cetaceans generally were unexpected, and the extremely high rates SRKWs have experienced the last 25 years are scary.

SN: How has working with OC impacted your studies on the SRKWs?  

OC was a leader in the effort to get SRKWs listed under the Endangered Species Act.  The listing led to an emphasis on applied recovery-related research rather than the basic science I had prioritized previously.  OC was also a major player in the rescue of A73 (Springer).  Since I had done my doctoral research on her mother, this maintained the link between basic science and its application to recovery (Northern Residents are considered a threatened species in Canada).  OC has also sponsored research that has allowed refining our understanding of how different threats interact with each other, and to help define what approaches to recovery are likely to be effective, and which will simply be cosmetic.

SN: You have worked with legislative initiatives.  What do you find are your greatest hurdles, and what are your greatest accomplishments?

Much of my research has focused on the effects of vessels on killer whale behavior and population dynamics.  This allowed the Washington legislature to increase the closest approach distance allowed, which was later adopted by NMFS as well.  I was part of the coalition that supported the phase out of Atlantic Salmon net pens that passed earlier this year.  I've also worked to support spending on land acquisition to promote salmon (and hence SRKW) recovery.I'm currently working on restoring salmon runs on the Klamath (a major river essential to SRKW recovery) and the Sammamish (a small river, but close to home, so there's not a lot of travel time and expense involved).  I'm also working on setting a limit for how loud we can make the environment for killer whales, and the variety of regulations needed to achieve that limit, and to expand critical habitat so that it is large enough to support recovery of SRKWs, and the importance of activities in coastal watersheds to critical habitat is made more transparent.The greatest hurdles are a budget process that is based on recent taxing levels rather than a cost-benefit analysis, and a lack of sense of urgency in addressing problems.

SN: Dave, you have this incredible academic background! Coming from the University of Washington, you are now heading up the Nathan Hale High School program!  What are you most excited about in working with the students, and what is your vision for this program?

I'm most excited about getting young people engaged in real world issues.  High school students are at the point in life where they'll decide whether to go to college, and if so where and what to major in.  As far as their impact on the environment goes, this is perhaps the most important decision they'll ever make.  Facilitating their willingness and ability to promote environmental health helps build capacity to try to overcome the threats facing us.  Further, high school students have the intellectual capacity to speak out about issues, but still have the innocence to speak the truth rather than bend their statements to fit another's agenda (they tell it as it is, not what it might be like if a slippery slope is involved).  Thus, when they choose to speak up, their statements are very powerful.

SN: What call to action, based upon your studies of the SRKWs would you like to see our audience take?  Is there something that they could do TODAY that would positively impact the SRKWS?

There is a huge list of things that need to get done.  However, recovery feels much more attainable if we realize that steady progress will work, so we don't need to do everything right away.  I break what needs to get done into big things and little things.  Big things like dam removal need to get done by government.  Little things like habitat restoration can be done by almost everyone.  Thus, I would ask that people talk with their elected representatives about prioritizing major actions that support recovery, that they take action in their everyday lives to be more whale friendly, and that they make financial donations and spend time volunteering to help with recovery related projects.

SN: Anything more you would like to share with our readers?  

A problem we face is that legal requirements are designed to prevent extinction, not promote recovery (the exception being treaties between the US and Native Americans, which, if enforced, require populations to be large enough to support harvest, not just large enough to persist).  We have regulations designed to keep things from getting worse, but people need to take it upon themselves to make the world a better place.  If we do the minimum the law requires, we'll have species that are perpetually on the brink of extinction, until a catastrophic event pushes them over the edge.We need our society to stop acting like spoiled brats and return to the ethic of sacrificing a little to make the world a better place for posterity.  As individuals, we don't need to save the whole world, just a little piece of it.  Working together, those little pieces will add up.Killer whales are dying the death of a thousand cuts.  The treatment is a thousand band aids, not heart surgery, and we're all capable of applying band aids.

Thanks Dave! We all feel fortunate to have you on our team!

You can help Orca Conservancy, Dr. David Bain, and most importantly, our Southern Resident Killer Whales by supporting the projects that we are working on through your financial contributions.

Thank you for your support!