skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

2018: The Year Northwest Orcas Recover?

play audio
Play

Thursday, December 14, 2017   

SEATTLE -- The devastating video of a starving polar bear has pulled on Americans' heartstrings this week. And scientists say West Coast orcas are in a similarly dire situation.

The population of southern resident killer whales dropped to 76, the lowest number in 30 years. Southern residents are the only community, or “clan," of killer whales on the endangered species list, and they spend part of the year in Puget Sound.

Catherine Kilduff, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said they've had a terribly hard year. She said there actually is drone footage of emaciated whales, much like the polar bear.

"In the case of southern resident killer whales, it's because they're not finding salmon,” Kilduff said. "And a lot of that is because there's not enough being released from dams, or the dams really ought to be taken down in the long term, for example in the lower Snake River. But we have to address these problems that are limiting the killer whales' food availability."

Research has found the southern residents have had greater competition for fish in recent years, from harbor seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals. Kilduff said climate change is also playing a role in the orcas' dwindling numbers.

Reproduction is down as well.

An orca calf that disappeared in September was last seen with a condition known as "peanut head," where areas around the blowhole that should be filled with fat instead are concave, indicating starvation. The situation for southern residents becomes more critical with each passing year, but Kilduff said 2018 could be the year things change.

"We don't need additional time before we take action, so there's really no excuse for 2018 not to be just the year of action for southern resident killer whales,” she said. "They're so iconic to Puget Sound, they're so important to the ecosystem and to tourism."

Kilduff said the best way to support the whales is to designate more waters off the West Coast critical habitat. The Center for Biological Diversity and other organizations submitted more than 100,000 signatures supporting this plan in 2016, and Kilduff said the government promised to make a decision on it in 2017. But she said plans for conservation efforts during the Trump administration have fallen on deaf ears.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Social Issues

play sound

Women are treated much differently than men by the criminal justice system, according to a new report detailing how and why mass incarceration is …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021