Exercises were conducted in a critical habitat area of the endangered population, Vancouver Island residents say

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Endangered killer whales off Canada’s west coast were forced to contend with machine gun fire and smoke bombs after the government allowed the country’s navy to conduct live fire exercises in a protected area.

Canada's salmon hold the key to saving its killer whales Read more

A strip of water roughly 45 nautical miles long and 6 nautical miles wide was temporarily closed to recreational and commercial fishing in June in an attempt to help the whales, also known as orcas, find more of their main food source, Chinook salmon.

But according to residents on the south-west coast of Vancouver Island, the Canadian navy and the US coast guard continued to conduct live fire exercises in those same waters, which the government designated as a critical habitat area earlier in the summer.

The area, in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the US state of Washington, was re-opened in October. But with more fishing closures expected in the future, the decision to allow exercises to continue frustrated both local residents and marine biologists.

“Are you saying to me that a machine gun peppering the water and smoke bombs are less damaging than [a couple of guys] going fishing out of a 12ft aluminum boat?” said Ryan Chamberland, who owns a fishing lodge in the town of Sooke.

As efforts intensify to help the endangered population of whales – known as the southern resident killer whales – the federal government has promised to spend $61.5m on programs to slow down commercial ships, reducing marine traffic noise which hampers the animals’ communication and ability to find prey.

Canadian authorities also plan to create sanctuary areas, which will be closed to fishing boats and other vessels.

Local residents argue that such restrictions should also apply to loud naval exercises.

“They closed down this area to recreational fishing to save the whales, and then the navy sets off phosphorus bombs and 50 caliber guns,” said Paul Pudwell, a whale-watching captain in Sooke. “They do it 20, 30 times a year. We can’t fish there, but you can go shoot it up?”

Pudwell said that several times he had spotted whales in the area while exercises were still happening.

Federal fisheries minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the creation of sanctuaries could give the federal government more power to control activities in the area. “[These] may be areas where we simply want to exclude a whole range of actives and that would include naval and exercises and marine shipping and fishing,” he told the Guardian.

The navy believes there is “no evidence” that the exercises have impacted the salmon or whales in the area, a spokesman said via email, adding that sonar equipment was prohibited during training and exercises.

The navy has previously agreed not to fire munitions while whales are within roughly half a mile from ships, but last year, whale watchers off the southern coast of Vancouver Island were surprised by two explosions while killer whales swam nearby.

In 2012, US authorities opened an investigation to determine if an orca was killed by sonar from Canadian naval exercises, after its carcass washed up on a beach in Washington state.

While no definitive conclusion was reached, marine biologists who investigated the believe sonar from the ships, which disorients killer whales, was the best possible explanation for the whale’s death.