Upcoming webinars to help answer key questions from the Governor's Southern Resident Orca Recovery Task Force

FROM the Co-Chairs of the Governor’s Southern Resident Orca Recovery Task Force

Dear interested parties,

We are hosting two public, informational online presentations via WebEx® to address some of the key information requests from the Task Force related to Southern Resident orca recovery and the threats posed by lack of prey, toxic contamination, and vessel disturbance. The presentations will convey information only—no Task Force deliberation or action will take place. 

Because we expect that many people will call in, we will need to facilitate the presentations tightly to make this format work. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. We will take questions first from Task Force members, then from Working Group members, and then from the public.

We expect each presentation to last about one hour. The WebEx access information is included below. We plan to record each presentation for later viewing.

If you have problems connecting to the WebEx, please contact Jennifer Goodenough, Puget Sound Partnership Administrative Assistant, by email at jennifer.goodenough@psp.wa.gov or by phone at 360-628-0050.

 

July 24 at 2:00 pm

Relative importance of the different threats to the southern resident orcas (Dr. Rob Williams)

Join by phone:

+1-855-929-3239 (Toll free)

1-240-454-0887 (US Toll)

Meeting number (access code): 803 735 308

Meeting password: SRKWTaskforce18

Join from a video system or application:

Dial 803735308@watech.webex.com

You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.

Add to Calendar

When it's time, start your meeting

 

Dr. Rob Williams will present the results from a recent interdisciplinary, collaborative effort that, for the first time, attempted to put the three main stressors (prey limitation, noise and disturbance, and contaminants) in the same currency, namely their effects on demography of the orcas. Rob will present key findings and limitations of the study, including its simplifying assumptions. He will discuss his view of the applicability of the study's findings for implementation, as well as some potential tradeoffs and pitfalls to consider. The study is open access and can be found at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14471-0. 

Dr. Rob Williams is a marine conservation biologist at Oceans Initiative. He has also been a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission since 2000 and is currently a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation. 

 

August 15 at 11:00 am

Economic analysis of the southern resident orcas (Matt Van Deren)

Join by phone:

+1-855-929-3239 (Toll free)

+1-240-454-0887 (US Toll)

Meeting number (access code): 802 683 831

Meeting password: Partnership2018

Join from a video system or application:

Dial 802683831@watech.webex.com

You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.

Add to Calendar

When it's time, start your meeting

Matt Van Deren will present on the findings of a study being prepared by Earth Economics, and funded by the SeaDoc Society, to identify the recreation and tourism expenditures in Washington State that depend on the existence of the Southern Resident orcas. By demonstrating the economic value of the Southern Resident orcas, the researchers hope to provide local stakeholders with evidence that can be used to garner funding support to protect this valuable natural asset. They believe that an economic analysis of the Southern Resident orcas will spur investment in restoration activities, specifically Chinook salmon habitat restoration.

Matt Van Deren is a Project Director at Earth Economics, where he researches ways to implement ecosystem services valuations into local, regional, and national policy.