Some Hood Canal residents are worried that boat traffic could be disrupting the hunting patterns of killer whales visiting their long waterway.
The number of weekend boaters has increased during the past five weeks since the dozen or so seal-eating transient orcas entered Hood Canal, observers say.
Steve Jeffries of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife was on the water last weekend to educate boaters.
“I just don’t think people over there really know how to behave around whales,” Jeffries said. “It’s a novel thing, and maybe not everyone is getting the word.”
Jeffries encouraged people to watch from shore, for the orcas’ sake as well as their own comfort. If people do go out on the water, they need to give the whales lots of room.
Judy Dicksion has been watching from shore for several weeks.
“You can see them well with binoculars,” she said.
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