Collaboration across borders needed to protect whales, WWU report says

Orcas and humpback whales spend their summers zipping between the San Juans and the Gulf islands, blissfully unaware that they’re crossing the invisible line that marks the U.S. border with Canada. 

“Animals don’t care about it, but it’s so ingrained in us that these lines exist,” said Cindy Elliser, the associate director of Western Washington University’s Salish Sea Institute. “How do you work across that line in a way that is good for everybody?”  

In the newest report from the Institute’s Emerging Issues Series, Chloe Robinson, the director of the whale team at Canadian conservation organization Ocean Wise, examined the differences in whale protections that exist across that border, which she says are only effective when they’re implemented on both sides.