Lack of Chinook salmon and the stress it is placing on the endangered Southern Resident Orca populat

In this 4:30 minute interview with Ken Balcomb in July 2017, he talks about the lack of Chinook salmon and the stress it is placing on the endangered Southern Resident Orca population.

Here are some highlights from that interview:

“By 1985 there were no Chinook left in Puget Sound … And now we are pretty much seeing the same thing here.”

“The salmon are smaller, much less numerous, and they are virtually all hatchery fish.”

“Nobody ever thought about the whales. We began to raise our voice a little bit but at the time the Southern Residents had just gone through a couple decades of gunfire and shooting because fisherman were trying to get rid of the competition. They (Orcas) all carried lead bullets in their bodies but rarely did they get killed. We didn’t want to raise the salmon issue in the 80’s, when salmon were already going down and have more whales shot.”

“We know they eat salmon so let’s solve the salmon problem.”