Friday, January 31, 2003

Voices needed

Public comment invited on orca rescue strategy

I'll be posting more on this in the coming week. But the long and short of it is this: Puget Sound's orcas -- the only resident orca population in the lower 48 states -- are fast becoming seriously endangered. The Bush administration, via NMFS, is refusing to list them as endangered, despite the fact that they are the classic example of an "indicator species" (they reside atop the food chain in these waters). When I was first studying orcas about 10 years ago, we had about 98 members of the local population. We're now down to the mid-70s.

Here's more about it at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Pitch in if you can.

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