Review of the Effectiveness of Recovery Measures for Southern Resident Killer Whales

Methods for Assessing Effectiveness of Recovery Measures

Table of Contents

• Complete Text
• 1.0 Context/Background
• 2.0 Objectives of this Review
• 3.0 Sources of Information
• 4.0 Methods for Assessing Effectiveness of Recovery Measures
• 5.0 Review of Recovery Measures
  • 5.1 Identified Threats and Broad Strategies
  • 5.2 A Review of Recovery Measures
• 6.0 Effectiveness of Recovery Measures
  • 6.1 Prey Availability
  • 6.2 Acoustic and physical disturbance
  • 6.3 Environmental Contaminants
  • 6.4 Ship Strike
• 7.0 Effectiveness of Recovery Measures related to Critical Habitat
• 8.0 Recommendations about priority of Recovery Measures
• 9.0 Conclusions
• 10.0 Acknowledgements
• 11.0 References
• Appendix 1

4.0 Methods for Assessing Effectiveness of Recovery Measures

In the context of this review, assessing the effectiveness of Recovery Measures is understood as examining the degree to which the actions completed and currently underway and those proposed in existing recovery documents have contributed, or will directly contribute to abating threats to support recovery of the SRKW population. Actions already completed, underway, or not yet started since the date the species was listed under SARA (2003) will be considered, and this will also be the baseline from which any changes in threats will be examined to assess the effectiveness of Recovery Measures. Given the transboundary nature of the distribution of SRKW, and their habitat and their reliance on stocks of salmon that are transboundary, consideration is also given to recovery actions listed in the US Recovery Plan for SRKWs.

The recovery objectives included in the recovery documents were developed at a time when the understanding of SARA was different than it is today and did not take into consideration the 2016tri-departmental Proposed Policy on Survival and Recovery (Government of Canada 2016); therefore, neither does this review.