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Emergency action is needed under the Species at Risk Act to halt and reverse the decline of endangered, salmon-eating killer whales in B.C. waters, according to a coalition of conservation groups.

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation, the David Suzuki Foundation and others are petitioning the federal government to curtail sport fishing and whale watching in feeding areas essential to the survival of the orcas and to restrict fishing on specific Chinook salmon populations that sustain the southern resident killer whales.

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Commercial shipping traffic should also be slowed down as the vessels pass critical feeding areas to limit acoustic interference that hampers the orcas’ ability to locate and catch prey, they say.

The southern residents are a genetically and culturally distinct population that feed on salmon, rather than on marine mammals.

There are only 76 members of the southern resident group left, down from 83 two years ago, according to the Center for Whale Research in Washington state.