Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 5 april 2019
Groups sue to restrict salmon fishing, help Northwest orcas

By GENE JOHNSON the whales, and we just
Associated Press recently underscored how
SEATTLE (AP) — Federal of- we’re doing that in a letter
ficials say they may restrict to the Pacific Fisheries Man-
salmon fishing off the West agement Council,” Milstein
Coast to help the Pacific wrote in an email.
Northwest’s critically en- “We are reviewing all the
dangered killer whales, but relevant fisheries in the
two environmental groups same light.”
are suing anyway to ensure Teel Simmonds called the
it happens. fisheries service response
The Center for Biological Di- “a great sign,” but that it
versity, which filed a lawsuit wasn’t a clear enough step
nearly two decades ago to to avert the lawsuit.
force the U.S. government She added that while habi-
to list the orcas as endan- tat restoration and dam
gered, and the Wild Fish removal might do more in
Conservancy asked the In this Jan. 18, 2014, file photo, a female orca leaps from the water while breaching in Puget Sound the long run to bring back
U.S. District Court in Seattle west of Seattle, as seen from a federal research vessel that has been tracking the whale. the salmon, officials must
on Wednesday to order of- Associated Press also restrict fishing if that
ficials to reconsider a 2009 Since then, however, the ocean-salmon harvests off lumbia, Sacramento and can help the whales now.
finding that commercial population of whales that the West Coast; it reported Klamath rivers. The lawsuit is the third the
and recreational fisheries spend their summers in the more than 300,000 Chinook Michael Milstein, a spokes- Center for Biological Di-
did not jeopardize the or- waters between Wash- caught last year. man for the fisheries ser- versity has filed since last
cas’ survival. ington state and Canada Thom urged the council vice, said Wednesday the summer to force the gov-
The National Marine Fisher- — known as the Southern to consider the effect of agency is reviewing the ernment to do more for the
ies Service issued a letter Resident killer whales — has salmon fishing on orcas as lawsuit. orcas. The others seek pro-
early last month indicating fallen from 87 to 75. A calf it sets the 2019 fishing sea- “Since the Southern Resi- tections on the orcas’ full
that it intends to do so. Ju- born in December is the sons, especially with regard dents are endangered, West Coast habitat and a
lie Teel Simmonds, an at- first to have lived past birth to Chinook runs considered the Endangered Species “whale protection zone” in
torney with the Center for since 2015. And scientists especially important to Act requires us to consider Puget Sound to shield the
Biological Diversity, said have learned much more the orcas in the Lower Co- the impacts of fisheries on whales from boat noise.q
the point of the lawsuit is about how crucial it is for
to ensure they finish the orcas to have enough of
job with urgency, given the the large, fatty Chinook: Meow hear this: Study says cats
plight of the whales, and to As they starve, the whales
meantime to help provide Because toxins from water react to sound of their name
take short-term steps in the start burning their blubber.

more of the orcas’ favored pollution are stored in the
prey, Chinook salmon. blubber, that can harm the By MALCOLM RITTER
“We have got to figure whales’ reproductive abil- AP Science Writer
out how to get them more ity, scientists believe. NEW YORK (AP) — Hey Kit-
salmon,” she said. “Since The orcas typically spend ty! Yes, you. A new study
2009 it’s become much about two-thirds of the suggests household cats
more crystallized just how year in the open ocean off can respond to the sound
critical prey availability is to California and Oregon. of their own names.
their reproductive success In December, the Center No surprise to you or most
and survival.” for Biological Diversity told cat owners, right? But Jap-
The Endangered Species the fisheries service it was anese scientists said Thurs-
Act requires the govern- intending to sue to force it day that they’ve provided
ment to certify that any to reconsider how salmon the first experimental evi-
actions it approves won’t fishing off the coast affects dence that cats can distin-
jeopardize the survival of the orcas. guish between words that
a listed species. In the 2009 Last month, Barry Thom, the we people say.
review, experts found that regional administrator for So you’re kind of like dogs, This Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017 photo shows Shelley, an adopted cat,
it wasn’t clear how a lack the fisheries service, said in whose communication at its new home in Philadelphia.
of prey affected orcas, but a letter to the Pacific Fish- with people has been stud- Associated Press
that the fisheries were not ery Management Council ied a lot more, and who’ve like a trip to the vet. And a list of four nouns or other
likely to contribute to their it would do just that. been shown to recog- they hear their names a lot. cat’s names, followed by
extinction. The council helps establish nize hundreds of words if So the sound of it becomes the cat’s own name.
they’re highly trained. Sorry special, even if they don’t Many cats initially reacted
if the comparison offends really understand it refers — such as by moving their
you, Kitty. Atsuko Saito of to their identity. heads, ears or tails — but
Sophia University in Tokyo Saito and colleagues de- gradually lost interest as the
says there’s no evidence scribe the results of their words were read. The cru-
cats actually attach mean- research in the journal cial question was whether
ing to our words, not even Scientific Reports. In four they’d respond more to
their own names. Instead, experiments with 16 to 34 their name.
they’ve learned that when animals, each cat heard Sure enough, on aver-
they hear their names they a recording of its owner’s age, these cats perked up
often get rewards like food voice, or another person’s when they heard their own
or play, or something bad voice, that slowly recited name. q