Resources

• Governor’s Executive Order 18-02 that created the task force and required state agencies to take immediate action to benefit Southern Residents
• Final Report and Recommendations (2019)
• Task Force Report (2018)

Progress Reports

• Task Force-related Budget Requests 2025-2027
• Task Force-related Legislative Summary 2024, supplemental budget
• Task Force-related Legislative Summary 2023-2025, biennial budget
• Task Force-related Legislative Summary 2022, supplemental budget
• Status Report 2020-2021
• Status Report 2019-2020

• Center for Whale Research‘s population census information and photographic identification of orcas
• Center for Whale Research’s Web site to hear orca calls, blows, and more
• The Whale Trail guide for watching whales from British Columbia to southern California
• Orcasound’s Web site to listen to underwater microphones
• The Whale Museum’s Webcam to see orcas near Lime Kiln Point State Park

• Washington State’s boating information portal provides guidelines for boaters to follow and ways to limit their environmental impact, including the boater’s legal responsibility to help protect Washington’s waters and aquatic wildlife.
• Green boating: how boaters operate and maintain their vessels can affect the environment significantly. It’s a boater’s legal responsibility to help protect Washington’s waters and the wildlife that lives there.
• Mitigation opportunities for projects increasing vessel traffic or noise (State Environmental Policy Act compliance)
• The Whale Museum’s Sound Watch Boater Education Program to help prevent vessel disturbance to whales and other wildlife in the central Salish Sea
• Be Whale Wise Web site and whale warning flag program to understand the rules for watching Southern Resident killer whales; outreach tool kit with resources for educators, mariners, and the public
• Commercial Whale Watching Licensing Program created by Senate Bill 5577
• Friends of the San Juans provide green boating tips to help boaters minimize damage to eelgrass, an important habitat to salmon, herring, and orca
• Give Them Space, a voluntary pledge program for boaters to stay a half nautical mile (1,000 yards) away from the endangered orcas in the Salish Sea
• Canada issued Interim Orders to help protect endangered Southern Resident killer whales from noise and physical disturbance from vessels in coastal waters off British Columbia
• Before visiting Canada, review the 2023 Canadian protection measures for Southern Resident killer whales.

• The NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries’ teacher curriculum, lesson plans and activities to support ocean literacy in America’s classrooms.
• The Whale Trail’s Kid’s Cove Web site, featuring kid-friendly videos and information about Southern Resident orcas
• Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Hungry Orcas, Declining Salmon curriculum
• Bainbridge Island School District’s Elementary School Curriculum
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Saving the Southern Resident Killer Whales, a Project-Based Learning Unit for Middle Schoolers

• SeaDoc and other conservation partners bring the latest high-tech gear into the fight to save endangered Southern Resident killer whales.
• Eba + Orcas, a story of Eba, a dog that can tell when orcas are near.
• Salish Sea Wild, Team SeaDoc works with scientists trying to save the Salish Sea’s most iconic and endangered species: the Southern Resident killer whale.

• Orca Recovery in the Salish Sea, Conservation Starters
• An Update on Orca Recovery in the Salish Sea, WWU Alumni Association
• Checking in on Endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales, NOAA Fisheries West Coast

• State of Salmon in Watersheds, Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office
• State of our Watersheds, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
• State of the Sound, Puget Sound Partnership
• Puget Sound Info, Puget Sound Partnership’s information on restoration, protection, and recovery information for the Puget Sound region
• Salmon Recovery Portal, Salmon Recovery Funding Board and Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office
• Action Agenda, Puget Sound Partnership’s science-based recovery plan for Puget Sound

• Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife video on increasing hatchery production to feed orca

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Web page on the plight of the orcas and federal recovery efforts
• NOAA’s Species in the Spotlight overview of the orcas and recovery efforts
• NOAA’s 5-year review of the status of Southern Resident orcas
• The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s killer whale conservation and management site with orca information and resources
• Washington Department of Transportation’s Washington State Ferries Sustainability Action Plan: 2021-2023 that highlights work being done to  benefit Southern Residents

• Orca Network, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of the Pacific Northwest whales

Photograph by Jeanne Hyde