Save the whales: that’s what environmental groups across the country are asking the government to do.
A petition is on its way to Canada’s ministers of the environment and fisheries, calling for an emergency intervention to protect southern resident orcas in the Salish Sea.
There are only 76 of those orcas left, said Ecojustice lawyer Dyna Tuytel.
“The most urgent threats are lack of food, and also disturbance both in terms of noise and the physical presence of vessels,” Tuytel said.
The petition also calls on the government to restrict how much chinook salmon can be caught, to increase food for the endangered whales.
Tuytel said the ministers can issue an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act — the deadline to do that is listed in the petition as March 1.