An Unforeseen Tragedy of the Commons - Our Resident Killer Whale Decline and What We Can Do

An Unforeseen Tragedy of the Commons - Our Resident Killer Whale Decline and What We Can Do
May 17, 2018
Ken Balcomb and James Waddell
An Unforeseen Tragedy of the Commons - Our Resident Killer Whale Decline and What We Can Do

Ken Balcomb III

Ken obtained his Bachelor's degree in Zoology in 1963 from UC Davis and soon after was employed by the US government as Field Biologist GS5-7, first in Eastern Pacific large whale research and later in Central Pacific marine bird research. During the Vietnam era, he was a commissioned US Navy pilot and oceanographic specialist. He then did his graduate studies in marine biology at UC Santa Cruz with Dr. Ken Norris, the world-famous marine mammal scientist. While a graduate student, Ken conducted Humpback whale research in the North Atlantic with colleague Dr. Steve Katona and taught marine biology aboard r/v Regina Maris for Dr. George Nichols of ORES and Harvard University. Ken is a pioneer in photo-identification of cetaceans and is the founder of Orca Survey (1976), a study of Pacific Northwest Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW or simply “orcas"). He founded the non-profit Center for Whale Research in 1985 and is its Executive Director and NOAA Fisheries contract Principal Investigator for Orca Survey, a long term study of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest. Ken is a Charter Member of the Society for Marine Mammalogy and has authored or co-authored dozens of scientific publications; and, his work has been featured in books and television documentarie

James Waddell, CE/PE

Jim Waddell is a Civil Engineer who is retired from a 35 year public service career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  For over twenty years of that career he has been a leader in developing the policies and practice of Sustainable Development within the Federal family.  He also served with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation.  His work with the NSF and then as the Senior Policy Analyst for the Environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy was largely focused on climate change policy, budgets and research integration.  He was the first in the Federal Government to identify and integrate all the global warming research programs allowing scientific information to better inform National and International policies.  His efforts in 1989 helped establish and organize the US Global Change Research Program.  In 1999, Mr. Waddell became the Deputy District Engineer for Programs at the Walla Walla District at the time the Lower Snake Feasibility Study was into its 5th year of development.  This $33 million study was the most comprehensive ever under taken by any government to determine the feasibility of breaching dams to restore salmon runs.  His recommendation to breach the dams based on the study and input from over 100,000 commenters who were largely in favor of breaching, was ignored.  After his retirement from the Corps in 2013 he has undertaken a re-evaluation of the study and his work shows that the magnitude of cost errors in the report clearly supports the conclusion that breaching the 4 Lower Snake Dams is not only a sound biological choice but will prevent the waste of millions of taxpayers’ dollars and loss of economic benefits to the Nation and region.

Over the last 10 years working primarily with EPA's Brownfield's Program he developed the visioning process that is known as Multi-Vision Integration/Vision to Action.  The process is a decidedly different approach to vision and public involvement found in public and private development agencies.  To date the process has been utilized in over 55 workshops in 45 plus communities and numerous leadership courses.  The MVI process is nationally recognized as a highly effective approach to sustainable community revitalization.