This Friday, January 15, 2010, is the deadline for public comment on the proposed orca conservation area along the west side of San Juan Island. All marine conservationists should consider commenting on these precedent-setting rules: comment via email | comment via web form. (Official background and the PDF of proposed rule are on the NOAA web page.)
If you are short on time, you can simply sign the petition in support of the proposed rules. The petition will be submitted to NOAA by the comment deadline.
Give a New Year’s gift to the southern residents — comment on these precedent-setting rules before midnight (EST for web submittal; PST for emailed comments) this Friday, January 15, 2010: comment via email | comment via web form.
“Current regulations in the U.S. to protect marine mammals stem from the whaling era and focus on prohibiting individual acts that harm marine mammals. If our society is to protect marine life from today’s threats, the regulatory process will need to change to protect the quality of habitats on which marine mammals depend.” — Peter Tyack, Physics Today, November, 2009.
Recent press:
Jan 13 Bellingham Herald
http://www.thenewstribune.com/1200/story/1026628.html?mi_pluck_action=comment_submitted&qwxq=665394#Comments_Container
Jan 7 Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010738153_orca08m.html
Thanks to Donna Sandstrom who heard a 3-minute segment on KUOW today in which whale watch operator Denise Wilk was interviewed about the proposed regulations.
Listen from 10:43-13:00 here —
http://kuow.org/program.php?id=19191
In an impressive display of last-minute support, the on-line petition was signed by 101 individuals in the 48 hours prior to the deadline. Support rang in from all around Washington State (Friday Harbor to Olympia), the U.S.A. (OR, CA, AZ, NM, CO, TX, GA, FL, VA, DC, NY, PA, MA, OH, IL, MI, MT), and the world (from Canada, Austrailia, England, and the Netherlands).