![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nThe approach distance for other killer whales would remain at 200 metres.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
The Washington-state based Center for Whale Research says its census put the population of southern residents at 74, as of July last year.<\/p>\n
But the population of southern resident orcas continues to decline, despite its endangered status, the federal government says.<\/p>\n
The Canada Gazette, the federal government\u2019s official newspaper, first announced the proposed changes this month, and stakeholders can submit comments until April 21.<\/p>\n
The proposed distance rule change would align Canadian regulations with neighbouring Washington State.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving consistent regulations on both sides of the border will simplify education and enforcement,\u201d Gless said.<\/p>\n
She said whale watching was an important part of the provincial economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis proposed amendment would provide additional protection for endangered southern residents, without impacting the ability of professional whale watchers to view the region\u2019s non-endangered whales.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gazette says that killer whales, including southern residents, rely heavily on echolocation to forage for food, communication and mating, and that disturbances from nearby vessels reduce their ability to carry out these and other functions.<\/p>\n
All marine mammals also face the potential of being struck by vessels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed (amendments) would mitigate the threats posed to (southern resident killer whales) by physical and acoustic disturbance related to some vessel traffic,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
The Canada Gazette says it developed the proposed changes after consultations with groups including First Nations and commercial operators.<\/p>\n
It says the proposed change \u201cwould not incrementally impact fishing activities, including rights-based fishing activities,\u201d or \u201cany commercial vessels in transit, including major project vessels and cruise ships in transit.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2026.<\/p>\n
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The approach distance for other killer whales would remain at 200 metres. The Washington-state based Center for Whale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,20739,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-559643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-ottawa","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}