Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Special Report - The Sound of Broken Promises

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This six-part special report both chronicles the long life of Granny, the respected elder in her Northwest orca pod, and examines the weak regulations, spotty enforcement and political foot-dragging that have put local orcas in jeopardy.

Whale lovers and marine advocates wonder if the recent adoption of Endangered Species Act protections for orcas and a pending plan to restore our inland sea will finally reverse the decline. Or will Granny and her pod continue swimming in a sea of broken promises?

Granny's Struggle

Granny The respected elder in her Northwest orca pod, Granny has lived from the dawn of the automobile through the advent of the Internet. Today, she and her pod are struggling to survive perils unimagined in her youth -- the destruction of their food and habitat, an ever-rising tide of poisons, the threat of a massive oil spill.

Part One: Over some 90 years, Granny has dodged bullets, escaped captors' nets. Can she survive the contamination of her home -- and her body?

Part Two: A young Granny grows from infant to mature female in a sea increasingly dirtied with human waste and poisoned with chemicals. To humans, she's a monster, a curse -- and, soon enough, a swimming target.

Part Three: Granny has escaped the bullets of fishermen and the military, but she and her family aren't so lucky when the nets of fortune-hunters close around them.

Part Four: Granny escapes the nets of captors, but she can't escape a world in change. Her seas grow noisy, crowded with boats -- and young relatives are dying.

Part Five: Granny must adapt to a world that's noisy and crowded, an underwater New York City where orca mothers pass along human poisons to "crack babies." The world up top is as strange. The same humans who once feared her now revere her.

Part Six: Granny is tough. She has dodged nets and bullets. She has swum in our garbage and pollutants for nine decades and survived. What she can't survive is a sea without prey.

The Sound in Crisis

PART ONE: DANGER FROM ALL DIRECTIONS

INTERACTIVE ILLUSTRATION

An overview of the many sources of pollution that endanger Puget Sound (Flash required).

Marine life is disappearing from Puget Sound, and fast
The causes are many: Politicians' broken promises, industries' resistance to stricter regulations and -- perhaps most damagingly -- the inability to convince people to live and work more gently on the shores of the Sound.

Although some species thrive, the feast is actually a famine
Fishermen and state fisheries officials say shrimp and spot prawn populations appear to be thriving. But that actually may represent a serious imbalance in the Puget Sound ecosystem.

Some businesses find flouting laws is cost-effective
Environmental agencies are hamstrung by businesses that repeatedly fail to follow the rules.

In the battle between fish and farmers, orcas are the losers
The Skagit -- the largest river flowing into Puget Sound, one where all five native salmon species still can be found -- is the classic example of how much people resist changes that are necessary to rescue the sound's sea life.

PART TWO: THE CYCLE OF CONTAMINATION

MULTIMEDIA

Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientist Peter Ross catches harbor seal pups on the south shore of Vancouver Island, taking blood and blubber samples to check them for toxic pollutants.

A rising tide of chemicals and sewage
Despite years of cleanups, bans on certain chemicals and increasingly stringent regulations, pollution in Puget Sound remains pervasive. Fish are bathing in microscopic bits of plastic, toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and caffeine.

The message in the (plastic) bottle is dire
A lot of the plastics -- bottles, bags, toys, packaging, etc. -- that we use are winding up in marine waters. It's a newly emerging threat to sea life as the items break down and make their way into the food chain.

Septic tanks suspected in threat to nation's manila clam harvest
Leaky septic systems are oozing sewage into marine waters and making shellfish unsafe for eating. But in many cases health inspectors can't get onto private property to pinpoint the culprits.

PART THREE: REALITY IS ALREADY SOAKING IN

INTERACTIVE ILLUSTRATION

How Western Washington's forest canopy has shrunk over time.

Toxic stormwater is one of the Sound's biggest threats
For years, government officials and scientists have known that polluted stormwater poses one of the greatest threats to the Sound. And they know how to fix it. But so far, no one has had the political nerve or money to match the threat.

Low-impact methods have high impact on ecosystems
Grassy ditches, rain barrels and green roofs are all innovations to close the tap on stormwater and can help save salmon and orcas.

PART FOUR: A PROBLEM THAT COULD BE SPREADING

Major oil spill presents greatest short-term threat to orcas' survival
Government scientists say a major oil spill is the biggest extinction threat for Puget Sound orcas over the next half-century. Even smaller spills irritate orcas' eyes and skin, and contaminate their prey.

An ounce of prevention won't clean up even a gallon of oil, activist warns
A gadfly has a warning about the preparedness for cleaning up a massive oil spill in Puget Sound.

PART FIVE: LOOKING BACK TO SAVE THE FUTURE

Slaughtered orcas' DNA a chance to save the species
Odds are good that your grandkids -- or maybe even your kids -- could see the Sound's orca population shrink perilously low in their lifetime. The government has launched protections to save the orcas, declaring most of the Sound protected.

Saving Puget Sound could cost $12 billion
The cost of saving Puget Sound could exceed $12 billion and will require a holistic strategy that tackles the problems plaguing the entire marine ecosystem, according to an all-star advisory panel appointed by the governor.

PART SIX: MAKING THE CASE TO THE PUBLIC

Puget Sound is in trouble, but many still don't get it
The Sound is still in trouble and people still aren't getting it. Restoration advocates agree that getting the public onboard is key for raising needed funding and stanching the flow from the "death by a thousand cuts" sickening the Sound.

What the readers are saying ...
"The Sound of Broken Promises" readers were troubled to learn about the plight of Puget Sound and conflicted over who's to blame and what to do next, according to the dozens of comments logged on the P-I Web site.

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