The Associated Press
SEATTLE — The National Marine Fisheries Service is studying how to revise habitat protections for endangered Southern Resident orcas that spend time in Pacific waters.
The federal agency said this week it is responding to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, which is based in Arizona and has an office Washington state.
The group wants to expand protections for Southern Resident orcas to include offshore waters from Cape Flattery to Point Reyes, Calif.
The Southern Resident orcas are frequently seen from spring through fall in the protected inshore waters of the Salish Sea, according to the Center for Wale Research at Friday Harbor.
The Salish Sea includes the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound, as well as all their connecting channels and adjoining waters, and the waters around and between the San Juan Islands in Washington state and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia.
National Marine Fisheries Service officials said they lack enough data or analyses yet to propose revisions requested in the petition.
It would publish a proposed rule in 2017 after collecting more data and completing studies.
Spokesman Michael Milstein said the agency is outlining a process to determine whether an expansion of critical habitat is warranted.
The federal government has already designated inland waters of Washington as critical to orca conservation.
Such a designation requires federal officials to limit activities that harm the whales.
The Southern Resident orcas are a clan composed of the J, K and L pods.