Orca Conservancy funds Scientific Research to Help Southern Resident Killer Whales

Thanks to generous donations, Orca Conservancy is pleased to announce the funding of a scientific research project to continue with our efforts in assisting with the recovery of the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. This research project which is nearing completion, will also be presented at the 22nd Biennial Society for Marine Mammalogy Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals being held October 22 - 27, 2017 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.The research 'To Develop a Quantitative Model of the Importance of Factors affecting Southern Resident Killer Whale Population Dynamics' currently being conducted by Dr. David Bain, will utilize the Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Plan which identifies three primary factors affecting SRKW population dynamics:  prey availability, toxins, and disturbance.  Timelines are now available for each of these factors.  In this project, Dr. Bain will develop a mathematical model to predict population change based on the listed factors, and test it against actual population trends. 

The model will be applied to develop a recovery “budget.”  The budget will identify the types of actions, magnitudes of actions, and timing of actions needed to produce the steady population increase identified in the delisting criteria for the subspecies.