The Salish Sea, the waters between Vancouver and Seattle, have become a cacophony of underwater noise: British Columbia ferries ply the waters, a vital marine highway link binding the province with its coasts. Container ships travel on their way to and from China. Whale-watching vessels carry sightseers eager for a look at the creatures for which all this noise has become a threat.
The southern resident killer whales are suffering more than a sonic headache. Reporter Justine Hunter writes this weekend that marine wildlife veterinarian Joe Gaydos said researchers have found that over the years, the increasing level of underwater noise from vessel traffic has forced the orca to change their communications.
The whales’ Pacific Ocean habitat ranges from California to Alaska, and they are recognized as endangered in Canada and the United States. At last count, there were just 73 of the animals - technically dolphins - left. Their predicament was a key reason Canadian courts required the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to ensure the increased tanker traffic associated with the pipeline didn’t further endanger the species.
The whales feed almost exclusively on chinook salmon - relying on echolocation to hunt - which is difficult when sound is muddied by the loud throbbing sounds of propellers. Underwater noise in the North Pacific has been doubling every decade since the 1950s.
“When the noise level goes up around them, they have to do the same thing that we do at a loud party or a concert - they speak slower and louder,” Mr. Gaydos said. “These animals, they’re acoustic, you know their world is the world of Stevie Wonder, they hear things that you and I can never even imagine what it’s like to hear.”
But as the pandemic began to impact shipping traffic since the start of this year, the party stopped.
Governments around the world were forced to shut down and all manner of marine traffic slowed. There is an estimated decrease of as much as 30 per cent in the number of container ships from China to the Port of Vancouver during the first four months of the year.
That means the orca may not need to shout to each other to communicate, Justine writes, and while chinook stocks from the Fraser and Skagit rivers have been inexorably declining, it may be easier for the pods to find their key source of food this year.
As a result, scientists on both sides of the border are eagerly waiting to see what happens when the whales return to the Salish Sea after spending the winter hunting in the open Pacific waters.
The hope is that quieter seas will help the orca find more chinook, even though the fish are in short supply. If the whales can put on more weight, they’ll have better chances of fending off diseases and potentially, reproducing.
And if all that can be observed because scientists can compare the whales’ behaviour in the quiet times to before the pandemic, scientists hope that provides the impetus for governments in the United States and Canada to insist on noise reduction even when their economies rebound.
“If we have an opportunity to try and learn something from this, we’d be fools not to take advantage of it,” Dr. Gaydos said.
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here. This is a new project and we’ll be experimenting as we go, so let us know what you think.
AROUND THE WEST
SAMWEL UKO INQUEST: Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says the chief coroner plans to call an inquest into the death of a young football player who went to hospital twice before taking his own life. Samwel Uko’s family says he was visiting the provincial capital last month from British Columbia when he went to the Regina General Hospital seeking help for his mental health. Relatives say he was released from hospital only to call 911 hours later and be taken back to the emergency room by a police officer. The 20-year-old’s uncle says he was informed by health officials that security escorted Uko out because he did not provide his name. Justin Nyee says his nephew’s body was found in Regina’s Wascana Lake that evening.
COLONIAL NAMES: The Manitoba Métis Federation says it’s not supporting a petition to change Winnipeg streets and schools named after a 19th-century British military general who led the suppression of the Red River Resistance. Federation president David Chartrand says Garnet Joseph Wolseley caused great harm to Métis and other Indigenous people in the 1800s. After a two-day meeting on the issue, Chartrand says the federation’s cabinet decided the names of those who harmed the Métis ancestors should stay in place.
MASKS: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the province won’t make masks mandatory as part of its pandemic response. A number of doctors recently published an open letter calling for such a measure to control the spread of COVID-19. But Mr. Kenney says the province can’t enforce its way out of the pandemic and is instead focusing on passing out free masks to encourage people to wear them.
HOSPITAL INVESTIGATION: A former judge and independent watchdog is investigating allegations of racist games played in B.C. emergency rooms that involved health care workers guessing the blood alcohol levels of Indigenous patients. The Métis Nation BC reported the allegation to the ministry on June 18, according to the organization’s chief executive officer, Daniel Fontaine. During an online Indigenous cultural safety training program, a health care worker described an elaborate game called “Price is Right,” which involved emergency room staff predicting the blood alcohol level of Indigenous patients, Mr. Fontaine said in an interview. He said it appears to be common at multiple hospitals.
THE ROCKY REOPENING OF ALBERTA’S PARKS: Alberta’s tourism industry – the fourth largest employment sector in the province – is struggling two weeks after reopening as border closings from the pandemic cause tourism numbers to plummet. Even if travel restrictions lift this summer, businesses expect that international travellers will avoid Canada’s biggest tourism attractions until the summer of 2021 at the earliest. Of Canada’s national parks, the Rockies that stretch through Alberta and British Columbia attract the most visitors on an annual basis, with Banff National Park and Jasper National Park seeing the highest traffic, according to Parks Canada. And Western Canadian provinces’ travel industries are tightly intertwined. Most international travellers tend to bundle Alberta and B.C. into the same visit, flying into Calgary to tour the parks before making their way to the West Coast or vice versa. Without international travellers this summer, businesses in parks and towns where people’s livelihoods depend on tourism may not be able to survive the year. Alberta’s tourism sector is highly dependent on international travellers, who tend to stay longer and spend more money. While 5 per cent of all visitors in Alberta in 2017 were international, they spent 24 per cent of all tourist revenue, according to Travel Alberta.
HOMELESS IN A PANDEMIC: The B.C. government’s effort to get people off the street has meant profound changes for hundreds of people. The process has also resulted in anger and dismay from neighbourhood residents wondering whether the solution put together in response to a pandemic has resulted in new problems. It has also underscored the dire shortage of affordable housing throughout the province, an issue that existed long before the pandemic and has become more visible as people are being urged to stay home even though some may not have that option.
DUTY OF CARE RULING: A ruling that two parents who held a party at which teens were drinking cannot be held liable for injuries one youth suffered subsequently adds a new chapter to the issue of social-host liability, observers say. Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled that Stephen and Lidia Pearson were not liable for the 2012 crash on Salt Spring Island that killed the 18-year-old driver and caused life-altering injuries to the passenger, Calder McCormick, who was 17. In the lawsuit, Mr. McCormick’s lawyer argued the Pearsons owed Mr. McCormick a duty of care, which they breached by allowing the teen to become intoxicated on their property and by failing to stop him from leaving. In the ruling, Chief Justice Hinkson wrote on the issue of what is reasonable as relevant to his decision.
GREEN LINE: After two weeks of public debate that included opposing polls, opinion pieces, and statements from multiple groups, Calgary council voted 14-1 in favour of moving ahead with the procurement for a first phase next month, as well as a process for the subsequent phases. But there are competing opinions about what it all meant.
FAIR DEAL REPORT: Albertans will vote in a referendum next year on removing equalization from the Constitution, which Premier Jason Kenney says will give the province leverage as it seeks a new relationship with Ottawa. The referendum is a key recommendation in a report released by Mr. Kenney’s “Fair Deal” panel, which was struck last year to examine a list of potential changes designed to address the province’s grievances.
RACE-BASED DATA COLLECTION: In a letter sent this week to Kasari Govender, the provincial Human Rights Commissioner, and to Michael McEvoy, the Information and Privacy Commissioner, B.C. Premier John Horgan says he is looking for a response by Sept. 20 on how data can be collected in a way that balances efficiency with privacy concerns. However, British Columbia’s Information and Privacy Commissioner is urging caution on the issue.
VANCOUVER PERMITS: It costs Vancouver’s small businesses and the local economy almost three-quarters of a million dollars and a wait of more than eight months every time one of them has to go through city hall for a permit to open a store, fitness facility, restaurant or bar, according to new research from a city advocacy group. The report recommends some significant reforms in the current system, which provides business licences fairly quickly but takes an average of 8.2 months for anyone who needs a development or building permit beyond that. One of the main recommendations is creating a transparent, consistent and online process.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHARITIES FUNDING: Two oil-industry groups and a Calgary businessman with ties to the sector have been granted permission to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Alberta’s public inquiry into the funding of environmental charities. A consortium that includes the Indian Resource Council (IRC), the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada (EPAC) and Brett Wilson applied to participate in a lawsuit filed by environmental law charity Ecojustice Canada, which is fighting in court to have the public inquiry shut down. Ecojustice opposed the application, arguing that the IRC, EPAC and Mr. Wilson are not directly affected by the case. But Justice Karen Horner of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench said the three applicants would bring a “fresh perspective.”
OPINIONS
Kelly Cryderman on the Fair Deal report: “This week’s release of Alberta’s Fair Deal panel report in many respects feels like a relic of pre-pandemic times, like handshakes or buffet dinners. ... But still, it’s a mistake to dismiss out-of-hand the report’s recommendations - or the political weight behind them.”
Jessica Scott-Reid on ag-gag laws and undercover work: “This pandemic has produced untold tragedies, but the work that has been done to uncover and solve these inequities, which have existed since before this crisis, has been a kind of silver lining. Yet, since November of last year, the risk is even higher for anyone in Alberta to enter such spaces in order to gather evidence of concerning conditions, if done so undercover. Bill 27, the Trespass Statutes Amendment Act, makes trespassing an even more dire offence, making certain actions of whistleblowers or undercover investigations punishable by possible fines of up to $10,000 for a first offence, up to $25,000 for subsequent offences, and potential prison time of up to six months. Bill 27, passed in knee-jerk response to animal activists entering farms to document and publicize the hidden conditions of animals, also deems anyone who gains permission to enter a property under false pretenses as trespassing.”
Adrienne Tanner on safe supply: “The emergency safe-supply plan has been stymied in part because it never had buy-in from key players – the very physicians and nurse practitioners vested with new prescribing guidelines. Many doctors feel torn between what they believe are contradictory instructions coming from the government, telling them it’s all right to prescribe opioids to street drug users, and their own governing body, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., which has instructed them to dial back prescribing opioids for pain control.”
Wendy Cox
James Keller