Here’s my video on why you should join the killer fight against the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project in Delta, British Columbia. Sources are listed at the end of this post.
Authorities say 2027-2028 is the likely start date for dredging and construction of the new artificial island mega shipping terminal in killer whale legally designated critical habitat.
Video Summary
It’s not too late. Scientists, volunteers, and everyday people around the world want to save endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) from extinction. Humans are currently killing off this unique orca species with our noise, pollution, and damage to seas and oceans.
Southern Resident killer whales are considered the canary in the coal mine or ecosystem indicator of habitat poisoning. In mines, canaries died off first from poison air so coal miners knew to get out. These whales are dying off from preventable human pollution in the Salish Sea and Pacific Ocean. If humans fail to help this species recover, it’s a bad sign for their ecosystem, Earth, and climate change.
In 2025, an international panel of scientists from the European Union, Canada, and the USA published their Independent Science Panel on SRKW Recovery. The scientists say it’s not too late. If we take evidence-based actions, e.g. less noise and pollution plus more Chinook salmon availability. Southern Residents only eat this type of salmon, and big old Chinook are healthiest for them.
Future Shipping Terminal Island Construction
Meanwhile in Canada, government types are approving projects that will add underwater noise, pollution, and negative impact on Southern Residents and Chinook salmon spawning grounds. It’s easy when the feds ignore environmental impact assessment and species at risk laws.
In British Columbia, the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 or DeltaPort 2 project is still going ahead in the Salish Sea. This will add a massive human-made island shipping port in the middle of the Southern Resident’s legally designated critical habitat.
Work on the artificial island mega shipping terminal is projected to start in 2027 or 2028. It has to happen during months when it isn’t stormy in the Pacific NorthWest. The Southern Resident killer whales won’t survive 5 years of summer underwater dredging and construction where they go to feed on spawning Chinook and birth their calves.
Current human noise pollution alone is killing these whales off. They won’t survive the massive increase in noise pollution and shipping traffic once the new island port goes into operation. It’s time to project this species instead of killing them off in the name of “nation building.”
As mentioned in my long video, here is my video transcript of the 2019 Raincoast Live stream on killer whale recovery. Things are worse now than in 2019. Because decision makers keep okaying polluting corporate industrial interests in critical habitat over saving the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale species.
What can you do?
For the latest updates and action alerts, please follow:
As they say, endangered is not dead and Southern Resident whales have a killer future if we act.
If you write letters, decision maker emails include:
Prime Minister of Canada: Mark Carney mark.carney@parl.gc.ca
Premier of British Columbia: David Eby premier@gov.bc.ca
Video Sources:
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation (Apr 23, 2024). Bright Extinction: Scientists have coined this term to describe the situation facing Southern Resident killer whales.
- Independent Science Panel on SRKW Recovery (2025): Strengthening recovery actions for Southern Resident killer whales. doi.org/10.70766/32.7300
- Orca Network https://www.orcanetwork.org
- Orca Network SRKW Births & Deaths https://www.orcanetwork.org/births-and-deaths
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation: Killer Whales https://www.raincoast.org/killer-whales/
- Ocean with David Attenborough (2025). National Geographic Society.
- The Canadian Press. (Jan 2, 2025). Famous orca mother carrying body of another dead calf in act of grief: researchers.
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation (Sept 16, 2025). 2025 Another devastating loss for the Southern Residents.
- The Canadian Press (Sept 13, 2025). Dead calf was still attached to umbilical cord while pushed by southern resident J36.
- CBC News (Oct 1, 2025). First Nations on B.C.’s North Coast won’t support Alberta’s pipeline proposal ‘now or ever,’ says chief.
- Government of Canada (June 2025). Port of Vancouver Projects Second Narrows Bridge and Roberts Bank Terminal 2.
- The Canadian Press. (Jul 8, 2025). Orcas off B.C. coast face ‘high probability of extinction’ if conditions don’t change: report.
- J. Hainsworth. (Jul 20, 2025) Vancouver Fraser Port Authority opens bids for Roberts Bank Terminal 2 build. BIV Business Intelligence for BC.
- V. Vergara, L. Barrett-Lennard, M. MacDuffee & P.C. Paquet, (August 20, 2025). Turning the tide for Southern Resident killer whales, Raincoast Conservation Foundation.
- M. Yang (Oct 2, 2025). Dogs and drones: how scientists are saving Washington’s endangered orcas. The Guardian.
- R. Fletcher. Oct 2, 2025). The fast and sometimes furious reaction to Alberta’s latest push for a pipeline through B.C. CBC News.
- L. Collins (Oct 17, 2025). U.S. tribe takes B.C. government to court over infrastructure consultation. Victoria News.
- The Canadian Press (Oct 18, 2025). 3 Indigenous-led marine refuges established in waters off B.C.’s North Coast.
- Coalition for a Quiet Ocean. Co-led by governments of Canada and Panama.
- Tourism Value Research, Province of British Columbia.
- Indigenous Tourism British Columbia, Destination BC.
- Super Natural British Columbia
- Government of Canada. Decision Statement: Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project. [Note no underwater environmental impact assessment has been conducted for Southern Resident Killer Whales.]
- Government of Canada. Interim Order for the Protection of the Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) in the Waters of Southern British Columbia, 2025
- Pacific Whale Watch Association (Feb, 2024). Economic Impacts of Pacific Whale Watch Association Tourism in the Salish Sea.
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation (Jun 20, 2024). Canada’s government needs to use an Emergency Order to prevent extinction of Southern Resident killer whales.
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation YouTube (Oct 8, 2024). Southern Resident Killer Whales are more than just iconic creatures
- Experience Birding in Delta. (Nov, 2024). delta.ca
- Georgia Straight Alliance. Apr 20, 2023. Cabinet’s decision to approve Roberts Bank Terminal 2 ignores science: The project will have a devastating impact on Southern Resident killer whales and Chinook salmon
- Knute Berger, (Dec 4, 2023). Tokitae’s death surfaced orcas’ complicated history in the PNW.
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada (2022) Key economic indicators for B.C.’s fisheries and aquaculture sector (2022)
- R.W. Butler, D.W. Bradley & J. Casey (2021). The status, ecology and conservation of internationally important bird populations on the Fraser River Delta, British Columbia, Canada. British Columbia Birds, Vol. 32. Journal of the British Columbia Field Ornithologists.
- Raincoast Livestream Panel: The future of killer whale recovery (April 18, 2019).
- Jan L. Mayes (April 18, 2019). Volunteer Transcript of Raincoast Livestream: The future of killer whale recovery.
- John K.B. Ford et al. (Jun 2017). Critical Habitats for Southern and Northern Resident Killer Whales. ResearchGate.net.
- Raincoast Conservation Foundation (Oct 26, 2017). Research: Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans.
- The Council of Canadians (Dec 15, 2015). National Academy of Science report points to dangers of bitumen spills.
- Trevor Jones (Dec 2014). Roberts Bank Terminal 2 – Marine Shipping Concerns.
- R. Weyler (May 10, 2012). The Cost of an Oil Spill in Burrard Inlet: $40 Billion…For Starters.
Check out more of my tinnitus-hyperacusis and harmful environmental noise content on YouTube at Safe Sound Science with Granny Jan.
For a change of pace, choose between my poems and funny or fiction tales at my YouTube channel Messed Up Storytime with Granny Jan.