I want to share with you something I did recently.
I live in Seattle, Washington where there is a small endangered amount of Orcas called the SRKW (Southern Resident Killer Whales) I was intrigued by the Orcas and started to do my research on them, I quickly figured out that our Orcas are endangered because of humans, and because of this the SRKW population has and is severely reducing. That is why it is crucial to help them whether it is to choose to eat coho salmon rather than chinook salmon or whale watch from the beach. Anything could make a big impact.
In order to help restore the Orca population we decided at school to research deeply in ways we could help and what was really causing the decrease in order to make the following letter, In which I sent to three of my legislative district legislators.
I hope that from this you can find ways to help the Orcas too.
February 16th, 2024
Dear Senator Mullet,
My name is Aida Serna and I’m a 6th grader at <redacted> in Bellevue. I’m writing to advocate for passing Senate Bill 6143. This will help the endangered Southern Resident Orca population recover.
This law will help orcas with the lack of food problem by protecting and restoring salmon populations habitats. Southern Resident Orca’s (SRKW) are in great danger and their population has significantly decreased. For example, according to The Center for Whale Research it explains, in the 1800s, the Southern Resident Orca population was above 200 whales. But now we are down to only 75 whales. There are many factors of why their population is decreasing but almost all of it is connected to their lack of food problem. Their main source of food is Chinook Salmon which takes up 81.6% of their diet, thus salmon is crucial to help the SRKW population recover. But there has been a Chinook salmon decrease and only around 300,000 chinook salmon are currently in the Salish Sea. In order to restore the SRKW population back to its original population (over 200) 2.5 million salmon would be needed. By, passing the Senate Bill 6143 the salmon population would significantly increase because it implies guidelines that citizens must follow, to restore salmon habitats, which would also help Orca’s with the other problems they are facing such as toxins. Toxins or PCBs (a toxin stored in an orca’s blubber) are very hazardous for the orcas. PCBs pass on from parents to calves and they significantly impact the orcas population. PCBs make orcas more likely to get sick, make it harder for orcas to reproduce, and less likely for calves to survive. The concentration of toxins is much greater in orcas than other marine animals, because the toxins biomagnify up the food chain as orcas eat a lot of contaminated prey. This relates to their lack of food problem because PCBs are stored in fat, and when an orca is hungry and is not getting the sufficient amount of energy it starts burning its blubber, which releases and disperses the PCBs across their body, significantly worsening the effects of toxins. (Such as PCBs) I hope you will advocate for passing Senate Bill 6143 to help our orcas.
