Whale populations helped by Arctic protections

If whales could speak our language, they would say “thank you.”

On Nov. 18, the Obama Administration made the right decision and removed oil and gas lease sales that were slated for the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaska, an important feeding area for gray whales and humpbacks. These two Arctic sites had been included in the Department of Interior’s proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for the years 2017-2022.

Thankfully, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced that the OCS program would move forward without the Arctic lease sales. The administration cited, among other factors, “the fragile and unique Arctic ecosystem” and “significant risks to sensitive marine resources.”

This is a leviathan victory for the whales, and for the whale-watching industry in the Pacific Northwest and all along the Pacific Coast.

It was 185 years ago that Herman Melville’s classic “Moby Dick” was released in America. We have mixed emotions about discussing “Moby Dick” as it brings us back to a time when whales were decimated by commercial hunting. Here in the Pacific Northwest, commercial whaling virtually wiped out our whales. By 1966 when whaling was banned, the north Pacific humpbacks were down to about 700 individuals.

Today, 50 years later, they have rebounded to some 21,000 animals, leading to NOAA Fisheries removing the population segment from the endangered species list. And they’ve returned in great numbers to the inland waters of British Columbia and Washington state, in what we’ve called the “humpback comeback,” providing extraordinary opportunities for whale watchers and researchers alike. Nearly two centuries after Melville, we have at last come to value whales as more than fuel for lamps; now, they fuel one of the most vibrant regional economies on the planet.

The Pacific Whale Watch Association has driven that boom. The 37 businesses in PWWA now take out about 400,000 passengers every year from 21 different ports in Washington and British Columbia.

Last year, PWWA operators participated in the first-ever transboundary economic study of the whale-watch industry in the Pacific Northwest. It showed that in 2014 our businesses generated an estimated $144 million in economic impact in the region, with a growth rate of 8.3 percent annually. Together with other whale-watch companies along the West Coast, that figure jumps to over a half-billion dollars a year. Whereas whales were once valued only as fuel for lamps, they now fuel one of the most vibrant regional economies on the planet.

When PWWA becomes aware of activities that put whales and our industry at risk, we speak out. Whale watchers have been outspoken in expressing our concerns about the threat of oil and gas drilling, especially in the Arctic.

In addition to contributing to climate change, oil drilling in that region poses a number of serious threats to these whales, including ocean noise caused by drilling and, were an oil spill to occur in the remote icy waters of the Arctic, it would be impossible to contain or clean up.

It’s said that the best oil spill response strategy is to make sure oil spills don’t happen in the first place. President Obama just helped do that.

But the work is far from over. More threats will surface. As such, we’re resolved to keep trying all things to protect these amazing creatures, and to continue to help redefine the relationship between whales and oil.

This story was originally published December 24, 2016 at 9:21 PM with the headline "Whale populations helped by Arctic protections."