B5
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, ApRIl 2, 2022
New orca listening post installed in Puget Sound
By LYNDA V. MAPES
Seattle Times
ABOARD THE SOUND-
GUARDIAN, Puget Sound
— Over the side it goes with
a splash: three ears pricked
for the sounds of orcas, and
the noise that threatens their
survival.
In the deep, this trio of
hydrophones rests on the
sea bottom, recording the
sounds of Puget Sound,
including endangered south-
ern resident orcas. The lis-
tening array, developed and
deployed by SMRU Con-
sulting, is attached to a buoy
that marks its location, just
about a mile offshore, north
of Carkeek Park.
The equipment will be in
place for three months, in
a proof-of-concept exper-
iment to determine if the
hydrophones and soft-
ware can readily pick up
the sounds of orcas, record
underwater noise and share
the data through a cellular
transmitter.
If it all works, listen-
ing arrays like this can sup-
plement orca sightings by
human observers reported
on
existing
networks,
already being used by the
Washington State Ferries
to steer clear of the killer
whales. Ultimately, the hope
is to deploy multiple arrays
in Puget Sound to alert ships
to the presence of orcas, so
they may voluntarily slow
their engines to cut their
noise, or change course.
A slower ship and more
distant ship is a quieter ship
— and that matters to orcas.
With now only 74 orcas
in the J, K, and L pods,
the southern residents are
among the rarest whales in
the world. There are at least
three threats to their survival:
lack of Chinook salmon,
their favorite food; pollu-
tion; and noise that makes it
harder for them to hunt.
Orcas hunt by echoloca-
tion — sophisticated bio-
sonar by which they locate,
chase and nail their prey. But
the noise of ships, ferries
and other underwater racket
masks the sounds they need
to hear to hunt.
Candice Emmons/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Orcas swim in Puget Sound with Seattle in the background.
IF IT ALL WORKS, LISTENING ARRAYS LIKE THIS CAN SUPPLEMENT
ORCA SIGHTINGS BY HUMAN OBSERVERS REPORTED ON EXISTING
NETWORKS, ALREADY BEING USED BY THE WASHINGTON
STATE FERRIES TO STEER CLEAR OF THE KILLER WHALES.
The Port of Vancouver
in British Columbia, Can-
ada, already has a program
in place to help quiet the
waters it shares with whales.
The port in 2017 launched
its ECHO program, which
includes a voluntary slow-
down for ships in Haro Strait
and Boundary Pass.
In 2021, the cumulative
voluntary participation rate
by the marine transportation
industry was 90% on transits
in Haro Strait and Bound-
ary Pass, reducing underwa-
ter noise intensity by 50%,
according to ECHO program
reports by the Port of Van-
couver and Vancouver Fra-
ser Port Authority.
A sister program called
Quiet Sound, a project of
Washington Maritime Blue,
a Seattle nonprofit, is in the
works.
The Quiet Sound pro-
gram is in its initial stages
and includes several efforts,
from technology develop-
ment to eventually imple-
menting a slowdown zone
in central Puget Sound, said
Rachel Aronson, the pro-
gram director. Quiet Sound
launched in January with
$600,000 from state and
federal agencies, ports and
foundations.
The program grew out of
a recommendation from the
orca task force empaneled
by Gov. Jay Inslee in 2018.
A first step toward a vessel
slowdown initiative is a field
trial for the hydrophones to
help determine when orcas
are in the area. So on a recent
morning, Jason Wood, man-
aging director at SMRU,
was out on the SoundGuard-
ian, King County’s environ-
mental research vessel, to
check on the equipment.
Wood worked with Bob
Kruger and other crew
members to haul the device
aboard, to replace its batter-
ies and check it over.
Then Kruger helped
lower the equipment, weigh-
ing about a ton, back into
the water with an overhead
crane, setting it gently on
the bottom, to keep right on
listening. No southern res-
idents have been picked up
on the device yet.
Efforts to quiet the waters
come as the Salish Sea is
poised to see more vessel
traffic.
Issues with the global
supply chain and cargo con-
gestion at ports recently
have caused a big increase
in the number of container
ships and bulk carriers sit-
ting at anchor, including in
the Salish Sea.
In addition, 22 new or
expanding terminal and
refinery projects have been
proposed, permitted or
recently completed that
will increase vessel traffic,
according to a 2021 report
by Lovel Pratt, marine pro-
tection and policy director
for Friends of the San Juans,
an environmental nonprofit.
Twelve of the 22 proj-
ects would add at least 2,634
annual vessel transits to and
from Salish Sea ports in
British Columbia, in prime
summer foraging habitat of
the southern resident killer
whales.
In all, 46% of the pro-
jected increase in vessel traf-
fic comes from the Trans
Mountain Pipeline Expan-
sion and the Port of Vancou-
ver’s proposed Roberts Bank
Terminal 2, a new container
shipping terminal proposed
for the Fraser River Delta —
where orcas hunt and a cru-
cial Chinook run returns.
If all of the proposed,
permitted and recently con-
structed projects in British
Columbia are developed,
it would result in at least
a 25% increase in large,
oceangoing
commercial
vessel traffic, compared with
2020 transits, according to
the analysis.
Canada’s Trans Mountain
Pipeline Expansion alone
will add 696 annual tug
escort transits between the
pipeline terminus in Burn-
aby, British Columbia, and
the entrance of the Strait of
Juan de Fuca.
With human impacts only
continuing to increase, noise
is one problem that can be
immediately
addressed,
Wood noted. It takes many
years to rebuild salmon runs.
PCBs were banned in 1979
but are still bleeding into the
environment.
But slowing a vessel can
cut the noise it makes right
away. And with enough par-
ticipants, the effect can make
a difference in the orcas’
ability to feed.
“It’s pretty amazing,”
Wood said of the success so
far of the ECHO program.
“That noise reduction con-
verts to foraging time the
orcas get back.”