Guy_Fawkes Guy_Fawkes:
They are on the endangered list in the US, but the IUCN is still debating if they are endangered or just threatened. Still one dead Orca isnt enough to alarm me, if this is something that happened more often with military exercises (like 1 in 20 exercises results in a dead whale) then I would be very concerned.
From a personal point I view I could understand that, but from a professional point of view (i.e. CF) I would expect it to be a point of concern. The CF does not really need anymore negative press these days and something like this does not end at resonating with the local Greenpeace/WWF groups here. Orcas are a significant tourist attraction generating a lot of cash for the Island and they are a very sympathetic symbol of the Pacific Northwest. This gets traction with the common man as it were which is why the CF should be concerned to ensure it indeed was not one of our assets that did this.