“Orca Network is very much supportive of responsible whale watching and we do believe that these rules are too restrictive on whale watching.””

Cindy Hansen education and events coordinator, Orca Network

New rules for whale watchers may do the already-threatened marine mammals more harm than good, according to local groups that spend their days following orcas in Washington waters.

Pete Hanke, owner of Puget Sound Express — a whale watching tour group based out of Port Townsend and Edmonds — said proposed restrictions for whale watching from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife will hamstring those who are actually serving as guardians for Puget Sound whales.

“What we find is that if one of our boats is present around the whales, particularly the southern resident orcas, everybody slows down,” Hanke said.

“We’re able to say, ‘Hey I’ve got the mama, I’ve got J-27 here and I’ve got her calf right here, you should be careful.’”

The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife has proposed two options aimed at reducing the impacts from vessel noise and other disturbances to southern resident orca populations resulting from commercial whale watching businesses:

• Option A proposes a three-month southern resident whale-watching season running from July through September. Boats would be restricted to watching the whales only from Friday through Monday and a limit of three vessels at a time would also be placed for each group of southern residents.

• Option B proposes a three-month July through September season for southern resident whale-watching, with viewing restricted to Friday through Monday. Option B also provides a “shoulder season” with Saturday and Sunday viewings for two months on either side of the main season: May-June and October-November. During the shoulder season, there would be a limit of one motorized commercial whale watching vessel at a time with a group of southern residents.

Hanke explained that the southern resident killer whales — for which the rules have been drafted — constitute only a portion of the various species that he’s build his wildlife watching business around.

The impacts to his tours would be rather limited, he said, because it’s not just tourist trips he’s worried about.

“We were on the situation last summer when the Washington State Ferry at Mukilteo rammed and killed a humpback whale,” said Hanke, who is also a commissioner for the Port of Port Townsend.

“My son was driving that day and he repeatedly warned the ferry to slow down and turn. Unfortunately, the captain was not on the bridge; it was somebody else and they didn’t do it and they hit the whale.”

Hanke added that whale-watching boats are often quieter than other commercial and recreational vessels that might be operating in an area near a pod of southern resident orcas because while observing the whales, the vessels’ engines are usually idling. 

“We’re able to kind of act as sentries and slow people down [which] is a really good thing, especially for the resident orcas,” Hanke said.

“With these regulations, they’re pushing us to the point where as an operator, I’m not even going to go to the residents because it’s just a waste of time to be a half mile away. And there’s no way that I’m going to be able to warn a boat because they’re going to be a long ways from me.”

Hanke isn’t alone in his belief that whale-watching boats serve to guard vulnerable groups of whales.

Cindy Hansen is the education and events coordinator for Orca Network, a nonprofit focused on raising awareness of whales in the Pacific Northwest.

The Orca Network advocates for safe and healthy whale habitats, and Hansen said she is also not in favor of the draft rules.

She agreed that when whale-watching boats are around, they act as sentinels to keep away unwary boaters.

“Orca Network is very much supportive of responsible whale watching and we do believe that these rules are too restrictive on whale watching,” Hansen said.

“There are a lot of recreational boaters who don’t know what the regulations are, who don’t know that there are endangered whales in these waters and don’t know what to do if they come across them,” she said. 

While Hansen said the options laid out by WDFW go too far, she did support a proposed cap that would be placed on the number of whale-watching boats allowed around a pod.

Hansen said she would like to see a maximum of three whale-watching boats allowed throughout the year, rather than only permitting the boats for three months a year.

“We don’t deny that noise is a problem,” Hansen said. “I think that the three boats is a good thing. It’s a decrease from what is currently happening on the water, but it still allows the whale-watch operators to be there to do the education that they do and inspire the public and perform that sentinel role.”

Hanke said he found some irony in the fact that the rules target commercial whale-watching boats while other recreational and commercial fishermen are still permitted to get much closer to the animals under the draft regulations. He said whale-watching boat captains are well-versed in how to pilot their vessels near the animals without endangering them.

Those points aside, Hanke added that he doesn’t think noise is even the greatest obstacle facing southern resident killer whales right now. 

“The first problem with the resident orca whales is that they have no food,” Hanke said. “That’s politically a really big dicy ball to throw around. The Native Americans don’t like it, the commercial fishermen don’t like it and the recreational fishermen don’t like it.”

The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife has extended the time frame for public input on the proposed rules. The public may submit written comments online through Dec. 5, but comments submitted prior to Nov. 13 will be analyzed for presentation to the Fish and Wildlife Commission.

The commission will also take public comment during a virtual hearing for the rules scheduled for Dec. 4 and
Dec. 5.

To view the draft rules options in their entirety go to wdfw.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/cww_ab_combined.pdf.

To provide comment on the draft rules, visit www.survey
monkey.com/r/cwwrules.