The National Oceanic and Atmpospheric Association announced this morning [Aug. 2] that the Northern Resident Orca population, which summers in the Puget Sound, will remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. The decision comes in response to a petition filed by Pacific Legal Foundation in August 2012, which argued that Pacific Northwest orcas were wrongly mandated as a subspecies, a designation that qualified them for special protection. The foundation was arguing on behalf of farmers in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The farmers are restricted from using water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta because it provides habitat for one of the orcas’ primary food sources — Chinook salmon.
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