Washington State's Orcas Given Threatened Status

Last year, a federal judge ordered the National Fisheries Service to reconsider its decision pertaining to the whales after environmental groups and concerned citizens filed suit. In 2002, the fisheries service said that the orcas did not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act, because the population did not meet the definition of being biologically distinct from other killer whales. Instead, it designated the whales as a depleted species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The orca population is down to 84 whales from 200, and two calves born this year will be added to the number if they survive till next year. Dozens of orcas were captured for sale to aquariums in the 60' and 70's. Since then, they've been struggling to survive the effects of pollution, human encroachment, and dwindling salmon runs.

In its original decision, the fisheries service concluded that the orcas faced a relatively high risk of extinction, but concluded that transient killer whales offshore would fill the gap.

A spokesperson for Earthjustice, an environmental group working to protect these whales, said that the San Juan Island population is a close-knit family that has been living in the Puget Sound for thousands of years, and that the federal government's refusal to protect them is "mind-boggling."