Wild Whales News
Churchill, Manitoba; Putting Polar Bears on the Radar
By: Julia Felske, Practicum Student Churchill, Manitoba, a small community of 899 residents, is widely known as ‘The Polar Bear Capital of the World’, and with good reason: from July to November about a thousand polar bears migrate to Churchill where they wait for the...
Is COVID-19 a Potential Threat to Marine Mammal Populations?
COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-21, was declared a global pandemic on …
Looking at Sightings in a Whole New Way
Using a new tool from the BC Cetacean Sightings Network (BCCSN), the residents of Saturna Island have taken whale research and conservation into their own hands! This year the Saturna Island Marine Research and Education Society (SIMRES) initiated a pilot project to...
The Good Kind of Research Flukes
Everybody wants to be a whale researcher! But what do whale researchers do when they’re out on the water? And what are they looking for when they find whales? Let me tell you! As a Research Assistant for the North Coast Cetacean Research Initiative in Prince Rupert,...
Keep your distance, even after COVID: New study identifies how well boaters in the Salish Sea follow regulations around whales
Written by: Molly Fraser, University of Victoria MSc Student There’s nothing quite like seeing whales unexpectedly when you are out on the water, whether you are on your own boat, a friend’s or family member’s, or have chartered a fishing, sailing, or commercial whale...
The BCCSN Welcomes BC Ferries to the Whale Trail
The B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network (BCCSN) is very excited to welcome BC Ferries to the Whale Trail! Based in Seattle, WA, The Whale Trail’s mission is to inspire appreciation and stewardship of whales and our marine environment by establishing a network of...
Tracking Contaminants in Killer Whale Habitats
By: Joseph Kim, Research Scientist Contaminants in coastal British Columbia (BC) It is late at night and I notice that more data have been uploaded to the PollutionTracker database. I am using these data to look at contaminant levels within and around killer whale...
And the Award for Top Cetacean Reporter Goes To…
Written by: Aaron Purdy and Sarah Patton, at Ocean Wise’s Southern Vancouver Island Research Initiative We’ve crunched the numbers and the results are in! Since its inception in 1999, the B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network (BCCSN) has received over 120,000 verified...
Unexpected Urban Whales: City Slicker Cetaceans Sighted During Coronavirus
Written by: Lauren Dares, B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network Coordinator It has been an unusual and uncertain start to 2020. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that a year that started off with pro-democracy mass protests in Hong Kong, Australia declaring a state of...
Answering your burning killer whale questions for Orca Awareness Month
Written By: Sarah Wilson
Marine Mammal Conservation Research Program Outreach and Technical Support Coordinator
Did …
Whale Depredation: Sneaking an easy Snack
Written by: Karina Dracott Research Biologist at Ocean Wise Marine Mammal Conservation Research Program Two new resources were developed this year by Ocean Wise for fishermen to address the issues of whale depredation. If a marine mammal has ever stolen your fish, you...
A Stressful Environment: Examining Stress in Resident Killer Whales
Written by: Brittany Visona Stress. You’ve experienced it in one form or another, whether you were late to catch your bus, ran into a bear in the woods, or were overwhelmed by a pandemic. Stress affects all species and can play a pivotal role in the overall health and...
CSI Ocean Wise: Tracking a Killer… Whale
By: Dr. Adam Warner, Research Scientist Ocean Wise Marine Mammal Conservation Research Program
Conservation research …
Quiet Oceans: Has the COVID-19 Crisis Reduced Noise in Whale Habitats?
By: Dr. Valeria Vergara
Ocean Wise Marine Mammal Conservation Research Program
In September 2001, during …
‘Listening to Orcas’: Watch Our Researchers in Action on CBC Gem
By: Amy Rowley
We are excited to share that the research of Ocean Wise’s Marine …
Life isn’t smooth sailing for a whale – it’s our job to make it a little easier: A look back on our efforts from 2019
It’s tough being a whale these days. Your average killer whale might not have to worry about increasing fuel prices, nor does a humpback whale stress about getting a work assignment done on time. But, imagine inadvertently ending up in a shipping lane – essentially a...
DNA: A KEY PIECE IN THE PUZZLE OF KILLER WHALE CONSERVATION
By Adam Warner
There are a lot of moving parts to the conservation of highly …
The Secret Life of Harbour Porpoises
How do you study B.C’s smallest-and most elusive-cetacean? As our BCCSN Research Assistant discovered, it …
