This has been a very difficult week for Washingtonians, and in fact people all over the world, whose
hearts are sick about the loss of this orca calf and watching the incredible dedication
of the calf's mother express her love for her lost calf.
This is something that has struck hearts all over the world, in fact who could not weep
seeing this mother and the lost love of her child.
So I have heard from many Washingtonians asking the question we all have which is, "What can
we do to save these orcas?"
And that's an extremely important question.
And I just want to help people think through this, and I would suggest there are three
things we need to think about when we commit our state to restoring the opportunities for
the orca to continue for the next several decades and centuries.
First we need to realize that they are in a very complex ecosystem.
The food they depend upon are generated through a very intricate web of systems and all of
those parts of that web of life have to be preserved.
Second we need to realize that there's no do-overs.
We can only lose the orcas once and they're gone forever.
And we need to keep that in mind.
And third, that we know that we are feeling these great passions in our hearts right now
and we need to forge that passion in our hearts into action in our hands.
We need to take action and use this feeling that we have, this emotion, to really lend
a purpose to an action plan for the state of Washington.
So I just want to briefly talk about some of the things we are already doing and what
we intend to accellerate in our efforts.
We'll have more to say in the weeks to come -- I have a Task Force that several months
ago I started to try to put a clear focus on our recovery plans, they'll be reporting
to me in a couple of months.
But the kind of things we're focusing on are several: number one, we know what perhaps
the most single important we need to do is increase the availability of Chinook salmon,
the principle diet of orcas.
And to do that there are many things we need to do.
We have to improve the habitat for our Chinook across the spectrum of the Chinook salmon's
life from their spawning habitat to their holding habitat out in Puget Sound to conditions
even in the ocean.
It's extremely important.
We have to recover the Chinook if we are going to give the orcas a chance.
We need to reduce the toxicity that are getting in the orcas bodies.
Orcas are bio-accumulators, that means as pollution gets into the water, either from
the streams or from the atmosphere, that toxicity builds up in the tissue of orcas and is then
passed on to their calves.
I've made efforts to improve that; we will continue to improve those efforts this year.
We know that orcas hunting and fishing is interfered with by too much noise, so reducing
the noise from our vehicle traffic, reducing the frustration that they have when there
are too many boats around them, we've already taken action by implementing a voluntary "no-go"
zone along the west side of San Juan Island so that we can give the orcas some space to
fish, that is necessary to their survival.
We know we're gonna have to modify some of our hatchery operations because hatcheries
can help production of Chinook and we've got to follow the science on how to do that.
And we know in the Columbia River mainstream we need to improve the survival of salmon.
I know people have looked at the breaching of the Snake River dams and that's something
the state is looking at and providing science for the review by the federal government in
that regard.
We need to act quickly, on a short term.
That's why I have supported additional spill so we can get more water going down the Columbia
to give salmon a higher survival rate so that Chinook could escape the Columbia River to
be the diet for the orcas.
So that's just a quick summary of the things we have done, and we are going to accelerate
our efforts, but we do know this this is a big lift.
And everybody in Washington needs to be involved in their personal lives and in their community
lives because everything we do, both on land and on water, it effects the orcas' survival.
The ability to stop air pollution, that goes into the air and then from the atmosphere
goes into solution in the water from from carbon pollution.
This is an important thing we need to do to reduce carbon pollution.
So we're going to all need to pitch in.
I look forward to people of good heart and sound hands to forge an action plan for the
state of Washington.
I do know this, as the orca goes, so go we.
Let's get together and solve this problem.
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