Passions run high on the issue of how to best protect resident killer whales in the waters off the San Juan Islands. A public comment period on a proposal that could help them ends Thursday. Orca whales communicate underwater with complex calls that researchers say are a language all their own. And they use echolocation to find their way around. But the southern resident orca population is on the brink of extinction. At last count, there were only 78 left in the wild. That prompted the idea of