Destroying and Restoring Critical Habitats of Endangered Killer Whales. (1st September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Williams, Rob; Ashe, Erin; Broadhurst, Ginny; Jasny, Michael; Tuytel, Dyna; Venton, Margot; Ragen, Tim
• Is Part Of: BioScience. Volume 71:Number 11(2021)
• Page Start: 1117
• Page End: 1120
• Publication Date: 2021-09-01
• Subjects: environmental law -- Endangered Species Act -- habitat degradation -- sustainability -- Species At Risk Act; Life sciences -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Government policy -- United States -- Periodicals; Biology -- Periodicals; Biotechnology industries -- Periodicals; 570
• DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biab085
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0006-3568

Abstract

Abstract: Endangered species legislation in the United States and Canada aims to prevent extinction of species, in part by designating and protecting critical habitats essential to ensure survival and recovery. These strict laws prohibit adverse modification or destruction of critical habitat, respectively. Defining thresholds for such effects is challenging, especially for wholly aquatic taxa. Destruction of critical habitat (e.g., prey reduction and ocean noise) threatens the survival and recovery of the 75 members of the endangered southern resident killer whale population found in transboundary (Canada–United States) Pacific waters. The population's dynamics are now driven largely by the cumulative effects of prey limitation (e.g., the endangered Chinook salmon), anthropogenic noise and disturbance (e.g., reducing prey accessibility), and toxic contaminants, which are all forms of habitat degradation. It is difficult to define a single threshold beyond which habitat degradation becomes destruction, but multiple lines of evidence suggest that line may have been crossed already.