OC PRESS RELEASE | FWC RECOMMENDATION ON COMMERCIAL WHALE WATCHING MISSES THE MARK ON WHAT IS REALLY NEEDED FOR SRKW RECOVERY
Please contact:
Dr. David Bain, PhD, Chief Scientist | dbain@orcaconservancy.org
Tamara Kelley, President | tamara@orcaconservancy.org
Shari Tarantino, Executive Director | shari@orcaconservancy.org
Orca Conservancy is deeply saddened by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission's recommendation to severely restrict commercial whale watching.
In 2019, the state enacted legislation to prevent harm from commercial whale watching and recreational vessels through speed and distance regulations, and a licensing system to ensure that only businesses that complied with the new regulations would be allowed to continue to operate.
However, WFC rejected this approach and recommended increasing harm by recreational boaters while proposing further restrictions on commercial whale watching which ultimately offer no benefits to Southern Residents.
While it would be possible to expand enforcement activity at taxpayer expense to prevent harm from recreational boaters, these expenses will compete with salmon recovery funding that is essential to Southern Resident recovery.
Further, commercial whale watching companies were well positioned to connect their passengers with opportunities to donate their time and money to salmon recovery, but the cost of this work would need to be borne by taxpayers as well under the FWC proposal.