The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is asking anglers and other boaters to avoid an area along the west side of San Juan Island in an effort to help protect the southern resident killer whales whose population declined from 98 whales in 1995 to 76 in December of 2017.
In addition to a lack of food — primarily chinook salmon, vessel traffic and noise is one of the major threats to the resident orca pods. The no-go zone will extend a quarter-mile offshore from Mitchell Bay in the north to Cattle Point at the southern tip of San Juan Island and a half-mile offshore in an area around the Lime Kiln Lighthouse, one of the best places in the world to watch killer whales from shore.
These waters represent the areas in the San Juan Islands that southern resident killer whales most frequently use for foraging and socialising and keeping all boats out of the area would allow the whales a quiet area to feed.
The southern resident killer whales were listed as endangered in 2005.
