“Orca Conservancy organizer Susan Berta talks with Howard Garrett as they watch for orcas in Saratoga Passage from the deck of Berta’s home at Greenbank. Garrett, a Coupeville postal worker, founded the Orca Conservancy a few years ago.Ken George/staff photoWhale Sighting Network hotline Whidbey residents or visitors who spot whale activity near the island are urged to report sightings to one or both of the following numbers: *Orcas – 1-800-562-8832: The Whale Museum*Grays – 1-800-747-7329: Cascadia Research Collective Sightings can also be e-mailed to Susan Berta at susanb@whidbey.net.Or visit the new Web site: www.orcaconservancy.org/.The fate of the orca whales that swim the waters around Whidbey may ultimately lie in the efforts of those seeking to designate orcas as an endangered species.Hundreds of caring eyes will be watching out for the black and white giants, thanks to the Greenbank-based Orca Conservancy – We want to be seen as responsible advocates for the whales … as having the ability to help the whales, said Howard Garrett, a Coupeville postal worker who founded the Orca Conservancy with Susan Berta. It is our goal to speak for the orcas – the orcas are vulnerable, too.The Orca Conservancy grew out of the ongoing movement to free Lolita, the last surviving orca caught in Puget Sound. Lolita has been held for more than three decades at the Miami Seaquarium in Florida. The whale was about six years old when captured in Penn Cove.Orca Conservancy organizer Berta said the group, which began with just a handful of members, focused almost exclusively on efforts to free Lolita during its first two years. Whale researcher Ken Balcomb and Garrett took on an intensive public campaign that often took them to Miami. Former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro teamed up with then-Gov. Mike Lowry in attempts to persuade Seaquarium officials to free Lolita.Back then, said Berta, the group was bolstered by the public interest in whale rights prompted by the movie Free Willy, and the resulting successful effort to free Keiko, the male orca featured in the movie.Berta explained that Lolita belongs to L pod, one of the three orca groups, or families, known to frequent the Whidbey area. She said L-pod and K pod each have about 20 members, while the last group, J pod, consists of about 44 whales. During the 1960s and early ’70s, several expeditions trolled Puget Sound in hopes of capturing live orcas. Instead, several whales were killed during those trips. In 1976, Munro recalls, he and his wife, Karen, inadvertently came across one of those capture attempts and were extremely upset by what they saw.As a result, Munro, who admits he never thought much about orcas before, became deeply involved in the effort to save the orca population. Later that same year, he led the charge to ban orca captures in the Puget Sound area. Along with all other state agencies, Munro filed a lawsuit against myriad federal agencies – including the Department of Commerce, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service – plus several other defendants and Sea World, which funded many of the whale hunts. We filed against damn near everybody, Munro said.Ultimately, he said, although the suit never led to a ban on whale captures in the region, it generated so much support that there haven’t been any captures here since then. Although researchers contend there’s no credible way of determining the total orca population throughout the world, Berta says overwhelming evidence suggests that the orca population is at serious risk – and is dying off. Based on scientific research and observations by Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research and others, it’s believed about 15 percent of the local orca population has died over the past eight years. Berta said the decline of the region’s salmon populations, the orcas’ main source of food, and the rise of toxins like PCB in Puget Sound have hurt the whales, as has destruction of the marine ecosystem by human development.Meanwhile, Berta said, although the public understanding of the challenges facing orcas is greater than it was five years ago, it’s still not as great as it needs to be.That’s why the group shifted gears about two years ago.Instead of concentrating all of their time and resources on Lolita, Orca Conservancy members increased their attention on public outreach and education.From its five original members, the group has grown to seven board members, including Munro, the aforementioned 300-plus whale-watching volunteers and about 1,500 globally who are part of a Free Lolita network.Each month, the Orca Conservancy offers a handful of community education programs. Perhaps most importantly, Berta and the others keep in constant contact, and diligently keep tabs on the whales through a constant tide of e-mail messages that announce orca pod sightings from Victoria to the San Juan Islands , to Whidbey and Camano islands and farther south into the Sound.After a recent group planning session, Munro, who is now working as a consultant for a company that’s engineering a new way to count election ballots, said he felt the Orca Conservancy and activists like them have made considerable inroads.He said he’s heartened that so many hundreds of people have joined the whale-watching effort. Munro likened the need to save the orcas to the preservation of the California condor or great redwood trees.It was nothing you really thought about before, but if somebody’s hacking the redwoods down, we want to work on it, he said. The orca species is a special gift and there are very few places in this great land of ours where you can see these whales in the wild, Munro said.It’s a matter of sharing the beauty, the fact that there are so few left. We have to recognize we are the protectors.Garrett said the Orca Conservancy is just beginning to realize its potential as a team.Both he and Berta, a former social worker in Wyoming, say they are most inspired by the closeness, the genuine caring displayed in orca pods.What they mean to me is – I think we humans have a lot to learn from them, said Berta. (Orcas) are living in harmony, in their environment, in a sustainable way. When you watch a pod of orcas and see how joyful they are, the bonds they have with each other … if humans could live together and be as peaceful and harmonious as the orcas are, the world would be a lot better place.From orcas, Garrett said, people can learn a deeper empathy than they now know in their daily lives.The campaign to free Lolita continues. Orca Conservancy members spent Mother’s Day in Miami, demonstrating for Lolita’s return to her home waters. “