MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service it’s starting a five-year status review of the Southern Resident orcas. The Skagit Valley Herald reports NOAA Fisheries published a notice in the Federal Register about the status review last week. The whales were listed as endangered in 2005 under the federal Endangered Species Act. Since the 1990s, the number of orcas in the three family groups — called J, K and L pods — that make up the population has dropped from the high 90s into the 70s. The orcas, also called killer whales, live along the West Coast and frequent the Salish Sea.
Feds start review of endangered Southern Resident orcas
