Southern Resident Killer Whale Critical Habitat

A geospatial data set depicting the boundaries of marine areas designated as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW).

The layer displays SRKW critical habitat as the area from the US-Canada Border in the north to just below Point Sur, approximately 20 miles south of Monterey, CA. (36º 18' N), and between the -6.1 meter (-20 ft) isobath, relative to mean higher water (MHW) and the -200 meter (-656 ft) isobath. This critical habitat is further divided into six separate areas as follows:

Area 1 and Area2 are shoreward and seaward halves of the zone from the US-Canada border to Cape Meares, OR (45º 29' 12" N). There is an exclusion to this zone from approximately the Hoh River to Gray's Harbor due to Department of Defense ownership and activity. In the waters unaffected by this exclusion, Area1 represents the shallower waters between the -6.1 m isobath and the -50 m isobath, and Area2 represents deeper waters between the -50 m isobath to the -200 m isobath.

All the following Areas extend from the shallow -6 m isobath to the deeper -200 m isobath, and specifically:

Area 3 is defined as the area from Cape Meares to the California Border (41º 59' 55" N);

Area 4 is defined as the area from the California Border to Cape Mendocino, CA (40º 26' 19" N);

Area 5 is defined as the area from Cape Mendocino to Pigeon Point (37º 11' 00" N); and

Area 6 is defined as the area from Pigeon Point to Point Sur (36º 18' N).

The layer also identifies non-critical habitat area beyond the 200 m isobath out to the US Exclusive Economic Zone, similarly divided north to south at the same latitudes used to separate the critical habitat areas. This is to be used for visual purposes.

The shoreward extent of the critical habitat did not extend along the -6 m isobath up into coastal outlets, such as The Columbia (and other) River(s), San Francisco (and other) Bay(s), or the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but instead were drawn in front of the mouths of those outlets at a distance consistent with its distance from shore north and south of each outlet. The shoreward extent did follow the isobath into the broad Monterey Bay.