Southern resident orcas listed under ESA

The southern resident orca population (J, K, and L Pods) has finally been listed as an endangered species under federal law.

Wow. It is going to be very interesting to see what happens now. This has the potential to affect a lot of areas - shipping, tourism, fisheries..... (though I'm not holding my breath, as so many salmon stocks are already listed, and it hasn't slowed development around watersheds one little bit).

As far as I know, the military is still subject to the ESA as well, so this may be an end to their use of low-frequency sonar in Haro Strait, given the reports of panic reactions by resident killer whales by several whale researchers and observers when the Navy last used it in the Strait in 2003.