Interview With Shari Tarantino

Shari Tarantino President of the board at Orca Conservancy.

Orca Conservancy, along with four other conservation groups, the Pacific Whale Watch Association, and the treaty tribes of Washington State are requesting your participation in opposing the Admiralty Inlet Pilot Tidal FERC Project No. 12690, to be sited on the east side of Admiralty Inlet in Puget Sound, Washington, about 1 kilometer west of Admiralty Head and part of Whidbey Island. Our opposition is not against ‘green alternative energy’, but we do oppose the current site chosen.

This OpenHydro Pilot Tidal Turbine Project could have detrimental impacts on our treasured Endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) population, as well as affecting transient orcas and 12 other Federally Protected ESA species, including Chinook Salmon, Chum Salmon, North Pacific Humpback Whales, and the Eastern Stellar Sea Lion.

The Endangered Southern Resident Community of Killer Whales (SRKWs) is now at the lowest population number in more than a decade. The three family groups, J, K and L Pod, currently stand at 80 members, (Center for Whale Research, 7/2013). Adding insult to injury, there have been no calves born this year despite recovery plans in place in Canada and the U.S.

What clearly needs to be understood is that tidal energy production is still very much in its infancy. That the amount of power produced so far has been small. Currently, only two commercial-sized tidal power plants operate in the world. One is located in La Rance, France; the other is in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Sign the petition here: PETITION

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