I shall be quick. Thank you.
For the population of these whales, the time needed to reverse the impact of these threats might be too great. J50 was a young female, with her reproductive years still ahead of her. While the chances of saving her were slim, we believe these iconic killer whales are worth our very best effort. In extreme cases like this one, veterinary intervention or, should it become necessary for an endangered species or population, an ex situ conservation program, in which we take members of an endangered population into human care for protection, could be our last best hope.
J50 was not the first cetacean patient at the marine mammal rescue centre. Others range from Springer, the young whale rescued and returned to her home off the north coast of Vancouver Island in 2001, to harbour porpoises, dolphins and a false killer whale in 2014. In 2017, members of our team were asked to help return an endangered beluga whale to its natural range in the St. Lawrence estuary, after it became trapped in the New Brunswick river system.
With our oceans warming, prey becoming harder to find, and the impacts of industry and development increasing, there's little doubt that more marine mammals will need help in the future. In every case that we respond to, we work closely with, and under the authority of, DFO, or NOAA in the United States. In the case of J50, it was with both federal governments.
Our team also continues to build capacity to respond to marine mammals impacted in the event of an oil spill. In almost every one of the past nine years, we've joined research expeditions in the Arctic to gather data about narwhals and their rapidly warming environment, at the request of DFO.
These are just a few examples of how we are directly conserving species and improving welfare for wild cetaceans in Canada. It is important to note that we are the only not-for-profit team of first responders in the water, performing life-saving rescues when a cetacean is left stranded along our shorelines.
We've provided some suggested amendments to you. I hope you will consider them seriously. Thank you. I really do believe it's important to all of us here that we do the best we can for these incredible animals. I think we can all agree on that. I appreciate your time and consideration.