The accelerating pace of Species becoming 'at Risk'

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released a survey that showed the total number of marine species at risk within the Salish Sea doubled between 2002 and 2015. While the Discovery Islands are within the study area, the EPA study did not list specific locations. So Cortes Currents asked Max Thaysen, President of the Friends of Cortes Island, about the species of risk in our area.

The Friends of Cortes Island identified 33 Species of Risk that live on Cortes Island either part-time, or year round.

They have devoted specific pages on their website to 17 of these:

Barn Swallow,
Big-eared Bat,
Blue Dasher Dragon Fly,
Coastal Cutthroat Trout,
Common Nighthawk,
Great Blue Heron,
Harbor Porpoises,
Northern Goshawk,
Northern Pygmy Owl,
North Red-Legged Frog,
Pacific Sideband Snail,
Silver Spotted Skipper,
Sooty Grouse,
Steller Sea Lion,
Threaded Vertigo,
Western Screech Owl
Western Toad.

There are species whose situation is improving. FOCI is collecting reports of Humpback Whale sightings.

Last April, FOCI and the HAKAI Institute partnered to organize a new citizen science sea star monitoring program on Cortes Island.

During the summer, FOCI asked Cortes Island residents to submit photos of any Great Blue Heron they saw. On Heron Day, September 5th, volunteers counted 15 Great Blue Heron.

In the course of our interview, Thaysen mentioned another species FOCI is observing. Forage Fish are not considered ‘commercially significant,’ but they are critical to many other lifeforms around Cortes Island.

Thaysen explained that, as a society, FOCI doesn’t have the resources for an in depth study of the species at risk in our area.

“I'm interested because the species extinction rate serves as a really good indicator of what's happening on the planet,” he said. “Scientists fairly consistently come up with a rough estimate of our current species extinction rate on planet earth as being a hundred times greater than the normal extinction rate.”

Thaysen described the EPA study as “a pretty serious indictment,” on the scale of the “asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs.”

The report states, “34% of all birds and 43% of all mammals that use this ecosystem are threatened, endangered or are candidates for status assessments.”

This is worrisome because they are at the top of the food chain.

For example, the health of Southern Resident Killer Whales is important because they are apex predators.

“A healthy population of Southern Resident Killer Whales indicates the health of the whole food web beneath that. If they're doing well: then salmon are doing well; herring are doing well; prawns and shrimp are doing well; the river systems are doing well and the ocean systems are doing well. Pollution is sort of under control. So what I think this report is saying, when it says that the number of Marine birds and mammals becoming at risk is particularly worrisome, is that they indicate the health of the ecosystem.”