Boaters can expect more scrutiny as the RCMP adds its muscle to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' effort to monitor human activity near the endangered southern resident killer whale population.
The police help will allow the DFO to stretch the number of hours officers patrol during the busy spring and summer season.
DFO supervisor Larry Paike said harassment from boats is one of the orca population's top threats, since it interferes with their feeding, making it a high priority for federal fisheries officers. "We've increased our patrols over the last two or three years and we're now branching out to include members of the law-enforcement community," Paike said.
DFO's resources are small, with only two boats and eight staff available to monitor the waters from the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north end of Saltspring Island.
In past years, Paike's staff has had to work overtime to meet the department's mandate, he said.
"This allows me to double my workforce," Paike said. The RCMP will also provide boats when available.
Cpl. Darren Lagan, spokesman for Island district RCMP, said the informal arrangement will work well for both agencies, allowing increased coverage for a variety of police and DFO operations. Besides whale harassment, patrollers will be on the lookout for criminal activity and fishing violations.
The beefed-up surveillance doesn't impress Ken Balcomb, executive director at the Center for Whale Research, based in Friday Harbor, Wash. Balcomb was stopped by the RCMP for an "extended interview" March 25 while investigating killer whale activity off Victoria. "It is a great federal employment opportunity, but irrelevant to saving the south resident killer whales. They need salmon, and that should be [the] first priority, to manage salmon accordingly," Balcomb said in an e-mail.
Anna Hall, a zoologist and a skipper with Prince of Whales, which gives whale-watching tours, agrees food-chain and environmental issues are critical to the killer whale population's survival, but welcomed the increased surveillance.
Kari Koski, program director for Washington state's Sound Watch, an organization that goes on the water to teach boaters about Canadian and American regulations, said even the best laws are ineffective without policing. "We need the backup of having an enforcement presence," said Koski.
"We have nothing to hide," said David Roberts, operations manager at the Prince of Whales in Victoria. "It's in our best interests to protect the animals that we're trying to visit."
Both Sound Watch and its Canadian counterpart, Strait Watch, said the number of incidents in which boaters harass whales appears to be stable or declining.
