Engagement on the science-based whale review

A summary of what was heard
March 2018

Engagement on the Science-based Whale Review
A Summary of What was Heard

Prepared by the consortium of Nielsen, Delaney + Associates, PubliVate.
Contract #: FP918-17-0001

Ce document est également disponible en français.

Table of Contents

• Complete Text
• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Project Background
• 3. Summary of Engagement Strategy
  • 3.1 Targeted Input
  • 3.2 Open Public Engagement
• 4. Summary of What We Heard
  • 4.1 Who Did We Hear From?
  • 4.2 Understanding the Findings
  • 4.3 How the Following Sections are Organized
• 5. Prey Availability
  • 5.1 Summary of Key Themes
  • 5.2 What Indigenous Groups Said
  • 5.3 What Governments and Other Stakeholders Said
  • 5.4 What the General Public Said
• 6. Entanglements
  • 6.1 Summary of Key Themes
  • 6.2 What Indigenous Groups Said
  • 6.3 What Governments and Other Stakeholders Said
  • 6.4 What the General Public Said
• 7. Acoustic Disturbance and Vessel Presence
  • 7.1 Summary of Key Themes
  • 7.2 What Indigenous Groups Said
  • 7.3 What Governments and Other Stakeholders Said
  • 7.4 What the General Public Said
• 8. Vessel Strikes
  • 8.1 Summary of Key Themes
  • 8.2 What Indigenous Groups Said
  • 8.3 What Governments and Other Stakeholders Said
  • 8.4 What the General Public Said
• 9. Contaminants
  • 9.1 Summary of Key Themes
  • 9.2 What Indigenous Groups Said
  • 9.3 What Governments and Other Stakeholders Said
  • 9.4 What the General Public Said
• 10. Conclusions - Readiness to Move Actions Forward
  • 10.1 Common Themes across All Threats
  • 10.2 Roles and Leadership
  • 10.3 Improved Coordination and Communication
  • 10.4 Future Engagement and Consultation
  • 10.5 Region-specific Actions
• 11. Appendices
  • Appendix A: Who We Heard From
  • Appendix B. Profile of Respondents – Let’s Talk Whales Online Engagement
  • Appendix C: Engagement Questions

5. Prey Availability

Southern Resident Killer Whales are highly specialized predators and forage primarily on Chinook salmon. The survival and recovery of this endangered whale appears to be strongly linked to Chinook salmon abundance. In particular, a sharp decline in Chinook salmon abundance that persisted for four years during the late 1990s was associated with mortality rates up to 2-3 times greater than expected. ^{Footnote 11} This lack of prey availability persists today and is one of the key threats to the recovery of the population.

Similarly, the decline of the St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga population in the late 1990s and changes in population dynamics coincided with changes in several environmental conditions, including a decline in the abundance of demersal fish and some pelagic prey ^{Footnote 12}, suggesting that food supply may have become limited and may still be playing a role in the current decline.

Changes in food supply that affect North Atlantic Right Whales include decreases in food availability (they feed on tiny zooplankton called copepods) and quality (i.e., nutritional value), and some shifts in distribution, including shifts that move their food supply to areas of high overlap with known threats. For example, in summer 2017, North Atlantic Right Whales were seen in record numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, an area where they have not been known to congregate in large numbers.^{Footnote 13}

5.1 Summary of Key Themes

Indigenous groups, governments, and other stakeholders provided feedback on the threat of prey availability for the Southern Resident Killer Whale. Indigenous groups provided feedback on prey availability for the St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga. ^{Footnote 14}

• Governments, Indigenous groups and some stakeholders acknowledged reduced prey availability as an important threat to the Southern Resident Killer Whale and the St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga populations. Prey availability was not mentioned in feedback on the North Atlantic Right Whale.
• In the Pacific region, Indigenous groups, some stakeholders, and participants from the general public overwhelmingly expressed their desire to see protection of the entire habitat of the SRKW's primary prey, (Chinook salmon), including the freshwater as well as the marine portion, from industrial development and pollution without delay to help its survival. Some industry/business participants expressed their willingness to support this approach as a means to ensure responsibility for action is shared amongst those who contribute to the different pressures on salmon habitat.
• Indigenous groups said that priority management actions should look holistically at the issues that impact whale recovery, including the threat posed by industrial development on whale habitat.
• In the Pacific region, they said that actions should build on local recovery efforts of Southern Gulf Island First Nations to foster healthy and abundant herring/sand lance populations, which are a food source for the SRKW's prey.
• In the Québec and Maritime regions, Indigenous groups requested more information on St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga prey stocks (type of prey; foraging areas) and the level of threat to these prey stocks from climate change; they request that these prey stocks be taken into consideration when identifying and creating a network of Marine Protected Areas and they suggest a systematic system be set up to collect and analyze prey samples to monitor their level of contamination.
• The majority of participants from the general public favoured fisheries closures for Chinook salmon or at least would support putting strict restrictions in place that are actively monitored and enforced.

Southern Resident Killer Whale

Representatives from Indigenous groups expressed strong concerns about delaying concrete, substantive Southern Resident Killer Whale priority management actions and did not feel that the Science-Based Whale Review consultation process had balanced input from the full range of Indigenous groups and other stakeholders. They expressed that inaction can be expected to threaten the existence of the Southern Resident Killer Whale and to have a dramatic overall effect on the food chain and Aboriginal rights to fish.

Feedback from Indigenous participants included:

• Ensure that the Science-Based Whale Review and emerging priority management actions look holistically at the issues that impact whale recovery, including the threat posed by industrial development on whale habitat;
• Ensure traditional ecological knowledge ^{Footnote 15} is included in setting priorities and implementing priority actions;
• Share up-to-date scientific information with participants on Southern Resident Killer Whale prey selection, current ocean and freshwater management of species and stocks to support informed evaluation of the priority management actions; ^{Footnote 16}
• Address the impact of use of drones on the Southern Resident Killer Whale population (not mentioned in the Action Plan or the Science-Based Whale Review); ^{Footnote 17}
• Focus efforts on understanding the availability of certain stocks, e.g., Cowichan Chinook; ^{Footnote 18} recognize the efforts already underway, the challenges and the complexities of making change;
• Build on local efforts of Southern Gulf Island First Nations to increase the focus of Southern Resident Killer Whale recovery efforts on herring and sand lance populations; specifically, the impacts of commercial herring fisheries in Gulf Islands within their traditional territories;
• Support the efforts of First Nations to build their own hatcheries in their waterways on their traditional territories to help Chinook flourish.

St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga

In responding to priority management actions identified in the Phase I scientific assessment, participants focused on the actions seeking to improve prey abundance through reduced competition and habitat enhancement.

Suggestions from Indigenous participants included:

• Provide more information about the St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga prey stocks (type of prey; foraging areas); ^{Footnote 19}
• Take St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga prey stocks into consideration when identifying and creating a network of marine protected areas; and specifically, to increase protection around Isle aux Lièvres;
• Share current knowledge on the level of threat to St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga prey from climate change;

5.3 What Governments and Other Stakeholders Said

St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga

The Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêches et de l'Alimentation du Québec commented that consideration should be given to managing the grey seal population and suggested this approach could reduce competition for St. Lawrence Estuary Beluga prey.

Southern Resident Killer Whale

Plan and manage fisheries to reduce human competition for Southern Resident Killer Whale prey

Some people supported implementing measures to reduce human competition for Southern Resident Killer Whale prey stocks in important foraging areas during key times, e.g., during years of poor Chinook returns. They believe that no further research is required before acting. A specific suggestion was to immediately reduce fishing pressure in already-identified foraging areas, including those areas with depleted Chinook stocks that transit Southern Resident Killer Whale critical habitat.

However, other participants felt that, before taking action, more work needs to be done to:

• Communicate actions taken to date to protect the abundance of Chinook stocks and the evidence of impact on Southern Resident Killer Whale;
• Better understand the complexity of the issue of prey availability and how these measures could help whale recovery;
• Clarify the strategic approach to setting targeted fishery restrictions, e.g., guided by current evidence of where along the Canada-US coast Chinook stocks are abundant;
• Include the sport fishery as well as commercial shipping industries in the measures. Sport fisheries often target Chinook and aim to catch the large fish that are part of the whale diet.

Form and formalize a Transboundary^{Footnote 20} Working Group of science and management.

The feasibility of implementing many of the prey-related priority management actions is dependent on transboundary management with the United States and work within the framework of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. There was general support for moving forward transboundary work over the short-term.

Protect and preserve the freshwater habitat of important Southern Resident Killer Whale prey stocks.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada currently relies on existing legislation, e.g., the Fisheries Act, to protect local fish stocks and local habitat in the marine environment. With respect to freshwater habitat, the Fisheries Act requires that projects avoid causing serious harm to fish unless authorized by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. This applies to work being conducted in or near waterbodies that support fish that are part of or that support a commercial, recreational, or Aboriginal fishery (e.g. Chinook Salmon). At the provincial levels, some actions are underway to protect Chinook habitat, such as new provincial groundwater regulations.

Addressing the threats to freshwater habitat was noted as more important than controlling harvest levels (the low hanging fruit) by some meeting participants and in some written submissions.

Suggestions included:

• Take substantial steps at the federal and provincial levels to protect the freshwater habitat of key Chinook stocks; ^{Footnote 21}
• Implement and enforce existing regulations to protect freshwater habitat;
• Take into consideration the Pacific Salmon Commission's coast-wide Chinook salmon model in Southern Resident Killer Whale recovery.
• Identify and communicate concrete examples of how Fraser Chinook habitat has been protected to help identify gaps and priorities for action;
• Extend protection and preservation to include both freshwater and nearshore habitats that have been degraded and are of known importance for Chinook and recover the capacity of the Salish Sea to support Chinook;
• Address straying of unmarked hatchery fish to protect the genetic diversity and population productivity of wild salmon;
• Increase enforcement and protection of spawning areas for the forage fish stocks (herring, sand lance) through cooperation of federal, provincial and municipal levels of government.

Implement fisheries management measures to foster healthy and abundant populations of herring and sand lance^{Footnote 22} to support greater availability of Chinook.

Depletions of local populations of forage fish due to harvesting are a concern in the region. This depletion may be contributing to decreased Chinook biomass in the marine environment and, therefore, a reduction in the primary food source for Southern Resident Killer Whales.

Participants at the in person/webinar meetings and those who sent in written submissions supported:

• Enforcement efforts to protect spawning habitat of herring and sand lance;
• Following the management approach in Washington State, which identifies local herring stocks;
• Improving habitat conservation for forage fish;
• In general, developing an improved management system for forage fish.

Some participants expressed concerns about:

• The amount of scientific evidence showing specifically that changes in stock health (e.g., stronger herring returns) are having an impact on Chinook stocks, and in turn the Southern Resident Killer Whale population.
• The impact of commercial fisheries on local herring or Chinook populations, particularly those identified in the San Juan Islands.

Participant suggestions included:

• Develop and share information on salmon foraging areas that inform harvest control measures;
• Use currently available, existing information and publications to guide management actions;
• Refine fisheries management measures to be more closely linked to different stocks, e.g., Cowichan Chinook.
• Strengthen research, monitoring and data collection.

5.4 What the General Public Said

The main question on the Let's Talk Whales online platform presented a list of four actions identified by scientists to help mitigate the threat of reduced prey availability. Participants were asked to rank the actions according to how important they felt they were to helping the whales (see Figure 5, below).

Of the 265 who responded : ^{Footnote 23}

• 42% ranked protecting and preserving the habitat of important whale prey species as the most important action, while 24% ranked it second.
• 31% ranked making it easier for certain types of whales to find and catch fish through quieter oceans first, while 25% ranked it second.
• Reducing competition with commercial and recreational fisheries followed closely with 23% of respondents considering it number one, and 34% considering it as a second priority.
• A fourth action, ensuring that the prey that the whales rely on have enough prey to eat themselves, was viewed by most general public participants as the least important, with only 3% ranking it as the first priority and 17% as second.