Orca! Orca!

Those of you that have been with me for a while may recall fondly the "orca phase," when I had almost every orca picture I could find on the walls of my room: cool images taken by Wyland, Lassen, nature shows and the like. Realize that I still have a Lassen up in my living room, and the cool whale hanging statue in my office at home. I still love the orca, and always linger over articles, photos and stories about them. One of the biggest envies in my life is that Meredith was able to just get up and move to Washington, and pursue a desire to lead whale-watching expeditions and such, all to be closer to these amazing animals. (And then there's the movie, Orca, where a male killer whale chases and terrorizes Richard Harris and kills Bo Derek because Harris hunted the whale's mate, killed it, and washed their unborn whale baby off the boat deck.)
Anyway, per this morning's headlines, the Washington orcas are now listed as an endangered species, giving them even more federal protection than they enjoyed under the "depleted species" label. This from the AP: "Since 2002, the orcas have been protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which kept them from being killed or harassed, but their listing under the Endangered Species Act gives them the highest protection available under the law." This new designation goes into effect Thursday. After that, any government agency looking to do anything in the area must have the National Marine Fisheries Service's permission, which will ensure that they won't harm the animals or their environment.
More from AP: "The three pods of orcas that live in Puget Sound from late spring through early fall, known as the southern resident orca population, total 89 whales. That's down from more than 100 in the middle of the last century but up from a low of 79 in 2002. The decline has been blamed on pollution and a drop in the population of salmon, their primary food."
Here's to hoping that they'll increase again with the additional protection.