Public Hearing - EISs for the Proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal ...

11/3/2012
1 Along with so many other people, we at The
2 Whale Museum are concerned about the environmental
3 impacts of this coal facility, as well as the impacts
4 to all of the many species of wildlife that live in
5 the Salish Sea.
6 But I am here right now speaking
7 specifically on behalf of the Southern resident orcas,
8 who couldn't be here today. In addition to our
9 concern over the environmental impacts this project
10 could have on them, we are extremely concerned about
11 what this could do to the food chain for a population
12 of whales that is already food deprived and starving.
13 This facility would be built in the middle
14 of vital habitat for a population of herring that are
15 a very important food source for Fraser River Chinook
16 salmon.
17 Fraser River Chinook are the primary food
18 source for Southern resident orcas during the summer
19 months. If this facility impacts the herring
20 population, it's a pretty short chain to figure out
21 what will happen to the orcas.
22 This is a population of whales that is well
23 known and loved in this community. Every individual
24 whale has been identified. They have names. They
25 have families. The loss of even one of them to this
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