Episode 50 - Part 2 Southern Resident Killer Whales 20 Years Endangered

Part 2: Twenty Years of Action: What We've Tried, What it Cost, and What it Changed

In this second episode of our multi-part series on Southern Resident killer whales, we take a look at the last twenty years of effort that has included new vessel regulations, salmon habitat restoration, contaminant monitoring, and the formation of a high-profile task force.

Hundreds of millions to billions of dollars have been invested since NOAA first published the SRKW recovery plan.

On this episode we discuss what we have actually done in the twenty years since the SRKWs were listed on the endangered species list, and what has it changed?

Coming up in Part 3 of this series we will get into what we can do over the next 10 years to turn things around for the Southern Resident killer whales.

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Links mentioned in this episode:

• NOAA Fisheries Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales (2008): https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/document/recovery-plan-southern-resident-killer-whales-orcinus-orca
• The Relationship between Vessel Traffic and Noise Levels Received by Killer Whales: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140119
• Recommendations from the Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force: https://orca.wa.gov/progress/all-recommendations/
• State of Salmon in Watersheds: https://stateofsalmon.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ExecSummary-2024.pdf