The importance of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Liz Lovelett, D-Anacortes, revolves around the survival of an endangered Puget Sound orca community, known as the southern residents, which currently number 73 with 25 females capable of reproducing. The area’s transient orcas — maybe about 200 in the Salish Sea — are not considered endangered.
“Our desire to see these animals has pushed them to the brink of extinction,” Lovelett said at a March 15 hearing on the measure.
Scientists studying them believe that the beloved orcas, which are more closely related to dolphins than whales, have been adversely affected by cacophonic noise under the Salish Sea, and the increased buffer
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