[CPEO-MEF] Coast Gurd, Machine Guns, and Orcas (WA)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Whale watchers say Coast Guard machine-gunning spooked orcas


By ROBERT MCCLURE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER (WA)
May 30, 2007

A Coast Guard exercise that involved firing machine guns in the Strait 
of Juan de Fuca spooked orcas, according to captains of nearby 
whale-watch boat, who reported a Coast Guard vessel did "doughnuts" 
around one of the killer whales.

The Coast Guard said the vessel firing the machine gun was nowhere near 
the orcas and was firing in the other direction. Twice the shooting was 
halted when whales came into the area, said Coast Guard Commander Pete 
Martin.

Dan Kukat, president of the Whale Watch Operators Association Northwest, 
said four whale-watch captains reported orcas from J pod began swimming 
back and forth and reversing course quickly, as if trying to evade 
something, during the exercise late Thursday morning.

...

For the entire article, see
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/317716_orcashoot30.html


--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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