HARO STRAIT — A large pleasure yacht bobbing in the water just northwest of San Juan Island caught Sgt. Russ Mullins’ eye. Waiting in the direct path of several endangered orcas, the yacht singled itself out Tuesday, July 3, from a pack of 20-odd recreational and commercial whale watchers.

Mullins, an enforcement officer with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, grabbed his microphone and flipped it to the public address system to hail the Chinook Wind of Canada.

“You need to move,” Mullins said. “You can’t park in front of the whales. You need to move off.”

After the yacht motored away from the orcas, Mullins maneuvered his patrol boat alongside it, and Special Agent Matthew Stratton went into action.

Stratton, with the Enforcement Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, passed the yacht’s skipper a Be Whale Wise pamphlet and talked to him about ways to safely steer clear of orcas.

Over the course of roughly six hours on July 3, Stratton and Mullins spoke with seven boaters about being on their best behavior around the endangered southern resident killer whale subspecies, eventually writing a warning for the skipper of the Chinook Wind.

“People love them, and unfortunately, they are so excited to see them that they are totally unaware and don’t really think about the consequence of their actions in a boat,” Stratton said later in the day. “They don’t realize the harm they can be doing.”

Southern resident orcas were placed on the endangered species list in November 2005 because their numbers have declined. Last year there were 85 whales; however, at least two new babies were born this spring. Scientists say threats to the orcas’ survival include dwindling salmon stocks, water pollution and vessel traffic.

San Juans are the place to be

Of all the areas in the United States with recreational and commercial whale-watching, the San Juan islands are unique because of the number of boats and the orcas’ behavior, enforcement agents say. It is the only region in the country where NOAA enforcement agents, who are typically plainclothes investigators, regularly patrol the water in hopes of preventing violations of the Endangered Species Act, said Brad Vinish, a deputy special agent in charge at the agency’s Seattle office.

This summer, federal agents stepped up their actions by writing warnings, which are tracked in a national computer database. By summer’s end, the federal agents say they could issue citations with monetary fines. Also, state wildlife officials may impose additional regulations on boater behavior around orcas before the summer ends.

“It’s kind of like the build-up you see when they are changing the speed on the freeway,” Vinish said. “I think it’s going to be a surprise that we’re actually doing it.”

Both Alaska and Hawaii have burgeoning whale-watch industries that offer tourists glimpses of the endangered humpback whales. On the East Coast, the attraction for watchers is the endangered Northern right whales. But the situation in the inland waters of Washington state, where 2,500 square miles are designated as critical orca habitat, is different, enforcement officers and whale experts say.

During the summer months, orcas encounter an average of 20 boats a day, according to statistics kept by The Whale Museum’s Soundwatch Boater Education Program, which monitors boats near orcas in U.S. waters. At the height of whale-watch season, up to 80 commercial and private boats can follow the orcas in an afternoon, according to Soundwatch.

The killer whales, which are actually the world’s largest known dolphin, can change course without warning, agents say. Other large marine mammals, such as the Northern right whales, are slow and predictable, Vinish said.

“The orcas have a mind of their own,” he said. “That’s what makes it a challenge to protect them.”

Orcas can take sudden turns

Even experienced skippers, such as Mullins, can suddenly find themselves in the middle of whales if an orca pod decides to take a sharp turn as it did Tuesday morning.

“The whales are heading straight for us,” Mullins said. “This is where we don’t like to be. Not that we could have done anything different.”

The best thing for a skipper to do in that situation is to wait until all the orcas have passed, agents said.

The state wildlife officers also regularly patrol the San Juan islands, checking up on fishermen and keeping an eye on whale-watchers. At least once each week, a NOAA Enforcement agent, such as Stratton, rides with a state officer. During this past week, with its busy holiday, a federal agent joined a state officer three times.

The summer of 2006 was the first whale-watch season since the southern resident subspecies was designated as endangered. During that time, federal agents emphasized outreach and education rather than citations, Vinish said. To get the word out that the rules had changed, agents spoke with boaters and bought billboard ads near marinas to urge skippers to Be Whale Wise.

The existing Be Whale Wise guidelines are a joint project of the U.S. and Canadian governments, Soundwatch and several other environmental groups. They recommend staying at least 100 yards away from marine mammals and slowing a boat’s motor to less than 7 knots when between 100 and 400 yards of the whales. Under the Endangered Species Act, agents can issue a citation for pursing a southern resident.

Judging distance on the water can be challenging, the agents say. On Tuesday, a red whale-watch tour boat appeared to be following directly behind a small group of orcas, but from another angle, the boat was more than 100 yards from the whales.

Although there have been cases investigated of alleged violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act in relation to the southern resident orcas, no one has yet been federally prosecuted for harassment, said Mark Oswal, a spokesman for NOAA Enforcement.

The state prosecution of Corey Mendoza of Stanwood in May could be the first time a skipper has faced charges of harassing the endangered orcas. Mendoza was accused by San Juan County Prosecutor Randy Gaylord of repeatedly “leap-frogging” his boat through the middle of a pod of whales.

Mendoza pleaded not guilty in May and ended the case with a bail forfeiture totaling $540. Mendoza said the case boiled down to his word and that of his passengers against Soundwatch volunteers, but he decided not to risk his time and money on a trial.

“I am not guilty. I was not guilty. I love the whales,” Mendoza said. “I’ve watched the whales many times. I would not hurt the whales.”

The case Gaylord’s office had compiled against Mendoza included images from video and still cameras that were taken by Soundwatch volunteers and researchers from The Center for Whale Research and University of Washington, who also were on the water Aug. 27, 2006.

Additionally, two state wildlife enforcement officers filed reports, stating that they had witnessed Mendoza driving his boat into a group of orcas, coming within 30 yards of the whales.

Rules could get tougher

The rules about boating around the endangered orcas could change yet again. Both federal and state enforcement officers say they want to cite skippers for boating in a negligent and reckless manner around the southern residents. The legal standard would be easier to prove than harassment, which requires showing that a killer whale’s behavior changed because of a boater’s actions.

NOAA Fisheries Service, the agency responsible for the recovery of the southern residents, just finished taking comments on the possibility of regulating vessel traffic around the endangered orcas. The agency could issue draft regulations by the end of the year.

State wildlife officials are considering enacting the proposed negligent and reckless manner regulations under the emergency provision of the Washington Administrative Code, possibly putting them into place over the next four weeks, said Mullins, who is writing them. One advantage of the proposed change is that it would give officers the ability to ticket a skipper for boating too fast for congested conditions, regardless of orca proximity.

State officials aren’t the only ones poised to act. The San Juan County Council has asked the county prosecutor to draft boating regulations to protect the orcas.

Typical violators fall into two types of groups — commercial tours that intentionally park in the whales’ path so they will drift near the marine mammals and recreational boaters who aren’t aware of the regulations or of the presence of orcas, the agents say. In general, most commercial operators follow the guidelines, Mullins said.

“They know to come in from the outside and set up based on where the others are,” Mullins said. “It’s really only 5 percent (of boaters) which give us trouble and the 35 percent who say they don’t know any better.”

The agents and Soundwatch do compare notes about violations.

“We still feel like education is the best bet,” said Kari Koski, director of Soundwatch. “Hopefully, people will understand it and do it, but we’ve come to realize that there is just too may people, too many boaters coming from many places.”

Lots of people, lots of boats

On July 3, orcas from J pod frolicked off of the west and northwest coasts of San Juan Island, one of their favorite summer haunts, possibly because of the number of salmon that can be found there. A male orca’s tall, black fin with its tip tilted at an angle cut through the choppy water. Some distance away, other orcas repeatedly surfaced in groups of three, four or five, their dorsal fins and curved backs breaking through to the air before diving back under.

On the marine radio Channel 79, commercial whale-watch operators chattered, sharing information on the whales’ locations and suggestions on the best spots to stop without getting in the orcas’ path.

At 10:45 a.m., a mere six boats idled near the orcas. A few hours later, that number grew to at least 20, with boats leaving and others arriving through the course of the day.

In the early afternoon, at least three orcas, one after another, leapt into the air, displaying bellies that resembled tuxedo fronts. With big splashes, they disappeared beneath the surface, perhaps diving deep to prepare for another vault.

Some boaters get so excited about the whales they forget everything except their desire to get close, the agents say.

“Most of the time, these folks out here are not trying to harass,” Stratton said. “It’s just a lack of knowledge.”

For example, earlier in the day, Stratton saw a slick white craft cutting across the water. The speedboat zipped through the orcas’ path. Stepping back into the cabin of the patrol boat, Stratton asked Mullins rhetorically: “What’s that powerboat doing?”

“He’s coming up way too fast,” Mullins said.

“He’s going right through the middle of them,” Stratton said.

Wildlife officers can’t take their boat barreling through a pod of orcas, so Mullins changed course to intercept the boat once it moved away from the whales. But potential trouble zoomed in from the opposite direction. Another, smaller boat sped straight for the killer whales. Mullins and Stratton signaled for the smaller boat, which was closer, to stop, and the larger power boat got away.

The small boat was filled with German tourists visiting Canada and “just having a little run-about.” The skipper told Stratton that they were headed toward the other boats to watch the whales.

“The whales aren’t always in the middle of the boats,” Stratton explained to the tourists. “Sometimes they are above and below.”

The small boat left, traveling slower.

A short time later, the Chinook Wind got into the middle of a pod of orcas, putting it in the agents’ sights.

“Didn’t I just talk to that guy?” Stratton asked Mullins.

For the second time that day, the enforcement agents pulled alongside the yacht. This time Stratton gave the skipper a written warning. In the distance, an orca breached, performing a back flip.

As the agents left the yacht a second time, Mullins said: “That’s exactly the case we’ll eventually be writing infractions for.”

* Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .

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