It’s been a gloomy few weeks, but here’s a bright spot: As noted by Sightline’s Eric de Place and People for Puget Sound’s Kathy Fletcher in a Seattle P-I op-ed today, Puget Sound’s resident orca population has been slowly rebounding over the past couple of decades, with 90 southern resident orcas visiting the Sound this summer. This trend is good news for orcas, of course, but offers a larger message:
"As the top predators of a diverse food web, the orcas embody the fate of the entire Sound. Their growing numbers are a promising sign that we can successfully improve ecological conditions, not only for the orcas but for us too. Cleansing the Sound of toxics and bringing back its abundance of salmon will take work—but there is plenty of evidence that we can do it."
