The federal government says it will help develop measures to support the recovery of B-C’s endangered southern resident killer whales. Terry Beech, parliamentary secretary to the transportation minister, says Transport Canada will spend 1.6 million-dollars on the efforts, which include deploying an underwater listening device in the Salish Sea. He says the department will carry out a four-year project to better predict propeller noise and hull vibration of a vessel. The measures were announced as the government faces new scrutiny through the National Energy Board of the impacts of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion on the threatened species.