Pacific WildLife Foundation Projects

Pacific WildLife conducts independent study of marine ecosystems with an aim of sharing the information with scientists and the public. We assemble teams of scientists to conduct the research and educators to provide the information to a variety of audiences from children to adults and multiethnic backgrounds. In all cases, our messages are based on the results of rigorous, objective scientific research. Most of the research and post-production work is done on contract. Many of our research projects are filmed for television or DVD. Projects are developed with team members to schedule logistical support, conduct the research and film the results. Pacific WildLife periodically accepts interns with particular skills required on a project basis. Contact the office if you are interested in participating. Please provide a resume of relevant skills and experiences and dates that you are available.

‘The Silver Wave Hypothesis”

Do surf scoters migrate north on the wave of herring, as proposed by the silver wave hypothesis?

Thanks to Sea Duck Joint Venture funds, Dr. Dan Esler from PWLF and his Canadian and American colleagues have begun to answer this question.

Dr. Esler and his team used satellite technology to record the locations of surf scoters carrying miniature radios that migrated through British Columbia and Alaska. They discovered that thousands of scoters assemble on the south coast of British Columbia to eat herring spawn in February and March. Read More

Killer Whale

Orcinus orca

Killer whales are members of the toothed whales (suborder Odontoceti) that have highly encephalized brains. Dolphins, porpoises, belugas, and narwhals encephalization levels are second only to modern humans and greater than all other mammals (Marino et al. 2004). Killer whales occur in all oceans from Arctic to Antarctic ice, and from coastal waters to open ocean (Wilson and Ruff 1999). They travel into bays, channels, and estuaries. There are distinct markings among geographic populations and in some parts of the Pacific, most individuals are identified by markings and fin shape (Ford et al.1994, 2000). The ongoing research has provided us insight into the whales’ social behaviour, local movements, and diets so that today the killer whale is one of the most studied of marine mammals and sought after species by the watching industry. Most of that research has been conducted in the northeast Pacific where a few marine biologists have devoted their careers to studying this species.

The killer whale is an abundant, highly social species with no consistent geographical pattern of global diversity (Hoelzel et al. 2002). However, cetacean biologists divide the killer whales in the northeastern Pacific into three forms – resident, transient and offshore whales. ‘Offshore’ whales are not well known and there is controversy among biologists about whether they should be considered a unique group. About 300 of the ‘transients’ roam from southeast Alaska to California.

Learn more about Killer Whales

West Coast Whale Research Foundation to Pacific WildLife Foundation

The West Coast Whale Research Foundation (WCWRF) was founded in 1980 to administer, support and conduct whale research and education programs. At that time, there were few similar research organizations in the world and none in British Columbia whose priority was the study of living whale populations. With generous public support, WCWRF met its mandate by contributing significantly to the first scientific descriptions of gray, humpback and killer whales in British Columbia and the North Pacific, and through education programs ranging from popular articles and books to the 1992 Gemini award winning documentary ‘Island of Whales’ narrated by Gregory Peck.

From Whales To Ecosystems - Everything Is Connected

A tenet of conservation biology is that the requirements of natural species protection include securing the integrity of the ecosystem of which it is part. This concept has long been at the root of traditional Nuu Chul Nuth culture on the west coast of North America that simply states, “I will find word” or  “everything is connected”. Melding these traditional and scientific principles, the West Coast Whale Research Foundation evolved to the Pacific WildLife Foundation in 2004, and significantly broadened its mandate to support research and education programs of coastal and marine ecosystems. This has been a natural progression for us as individuals, as much of our whale research that preceded this administrative change with studies of gray whale prey species and habitat preferences as an example.