Orcasphere

13:50 Kari Koski, Soundwatch program

• Soundwatch tries to reach boaters before they get on the water
• We reinforce that education through education and monitoring patrols
• Citizen science is done from the same boat (1/2 hour survey for vessel trends)
• 40 volunteers put in a lot of hours, operating 10 hour days, from May 1 through September
• The No Go zone began in 1996 at Lime Kiln, and was expanded in 1998 to include 1/4nm stand-off along west side
• Results: majority of boats are whale watchers, boat density peaks in july/aug and holidays, and along the west side
• High variance: daily boat count max (up to 81) is sometimes 2-3x long-term average boat count.
• Who’s parking in front? 60% private, 30% Canadian operators, 13% U.S. operators
• Who’s going >7knots? >75% private boats, ~15% Canadian

14:10 Nic Dedeluk, Straitwatch program of Cetus Research and Conservation Society

• Replaced M3 in 2007 we brought program down to Victoria from Johnstone Strait
• Land-based program will be full time in 2009, while boat will be on the water only intermittently
• Straitwatch monitoring consists of vessel counts (<1km from focal group of whales, with range measured with range-finder in past and radar in 2009), incident scans, serious incident monitoring