The inaugural 2023 Raincoast Ocean Science Awards
Winners of the Raincoast Ocean Science Awards were announced last week in Vancouver.
Last Thursday, Raincoast hosted the Raincoast Ocean Science Awards and celebrated outstanding achievements by individuals and groups striving to protect lands, waters, and wildlife through science, Indigenous Knowledge systems, and public engagement. The MC for the evening was Linda Aylesworth, journalist extraordinaire, with a career spanning four decades in BC.
The event was attended by many inspiring change makers and during the evening we distributed four awards to outstanding individuals and organizations.
Recipients of the awards
Dr. Paul Paquet – The North Award for Lifetime Contribution to Coastal Conservation
Paul Paquet is a senior scientist with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and an Adjunct Associate professor at the University of Victoria where he works closely with the Raincoast Applied Conservation Science Lab. As a world authority in conservation science, Paul’s 45+ years of research covers topics from mammals and birds, to wildlife diseases, and genetics. He is internationally recognized as an expert on the ecology, behaviour and management of large carnivores, especially wolves and bears. He has published more than 200 scholarly articles and several books. He holds several Adjunct Faculty positions, as well as numerous positions to advisory committees.
Most important to Dr. Paquet, however, is the contributions he makes as Senior Scientist for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, particularly with regard to furthering scientific understanding and conservation of coastal ecosystems and species. Among this extensive body of work, he has played a major role in research and conservation achievements on the BC coast, including advancing protection for the Great Bear Rainforest, stopping the Northern Gateway pipeline and oil tanker proposal, ending the trophy hunting of grizzly bears, characterizing the threats facing endangered Southern Resident killer whales, establishing abundance and distribution estimates for marine birds and mammals, and identifying the role of large carnivores and wild salmon in coastal ecosystems. Importantly, he was a key part of furthering scientific understanding that lead to characterizing our coastal wolves as sea wolves, and more broadly, in identifying that any line drawn between terrestrial and marine habitats here, is an artificial one, as these are more accurately described as one ecosystem.
Paul has also been fundamental as a mentor to Raincost staff. He mentored and helped launch the careers of numerous scientists at Raincoast, including Dr. Chris Darimont, our science director and chair of the UVic Raincoast lab. Paul has guided Raincoast in strategic scientific approaches to coastal conservation for almost three decades.
Dr. Andrea Reid – The Newman Award for Excellence in Conservation and Research
Dr. Andrea Reid is a citizen of the Nisga’a Nation, a descendant of the Gisk’aast (Killerwhale) clan, with her paternal family coming from Gingolx. She was raised, however, on Epekwitk (Prince Edward Island) by her mother and brothers. She now lives in the Nass River Valley, home of her Nation, in Lax̱g̱alts’ap. Dr. Reid joined the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor in 2021, and is now a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Fisheries Science. She has launched and now leads the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries that is committed to research and teaching approaches that are intergenerational, land-based, and profoundly relational.
Desiree Lawson – The Raincoast Student Award
Kániɫkas, Desiree Lawson is a member of the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) Nation, and has been working at the confluence of Indigenous and western scientific knowledge for over a decade. She previously served as a Coastal Guardian Watchmen for the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department, as well as the Marine Plan Implementation Coordinator for the Central Coast Indigenous Resource Alliance. Desiree also authored the Haíɫzaqv Nation’s Oceans Act based on ancestral laws, as a part of West Coast Environmental Law’s RELAW project. She is currently studying mariculture and clam gardens for her master’s research at Simon Fraser University, where she is investigating clam productivity, sea level rise, and the ancestral laws and governance of clam gardens in Haíɫzaqv territory. Desiree is an expert in marine planning and coastal ecology, and she is an emerging Indigenous leader in environmental management and governance. Her environmental expertise, coupled with her deep knowledge of Indigenous protocols and ways of knowing, are unparalleled.
Ikaarvik – The Nightingale Award in Ocean Engagement
Ikaarvik is celebrated for its tremendous achievements in connecting Arctic people, cultures and knowledge systems for more effective and meaningful communication, engagement and research collaboration. The work of Ikaarvik has led to greater integration of knowledge types, more robust data, and more timely and relevant results, all leading to better-informed decision making. Ikaarvik has built an awareness and understanding of the strengths of both northern Indigenous Knowledge and Western science at a critical time when the scale and rate of environmental change requires that we draw upon all available knowledge to address the world’s pressing environmental challenges. The Nightingale Award will allow Ikaarvik to deepen its work, and further integrate successful projects into core operations and building the capacity of this Arctic not-for-profit organization. Broadening Ikaarvik’s reach and the global awareness will aid this remarkable group in furthering its mission to empower northern Indigenous youth to remove long-standing barriers to effective communication and collaboration in research and decision making.
More about the awards
These awards have served to celebrate ocean conservation in British Columbia since their establishment in 1995 as the Murray A. Newman Awards at the Vancouver Aquarium. Raincoast is proud to be able to continue this legacy by hosting the new Raincoast Ocean Science Awards. We have been applying a unique model of informed advocacy to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife of coastal BC for over 25 years. Our projects are rooted in rigorous, peer-reviewed research and science, and informed by community engagement.
Recipients from past awards include David Suzuki, Daniel Pauly, Cristina Mittermeier, Brian Riddell, Chris Darimont, Danielle Shaw, Rashid Sumaila, John Reynolds, and Verena Tunnicliffe, to name a few.
A special thank you
Thank you to Seasons in the Park for hosting us. Thank you to Spirit Bear Lodge, Homolco Wildlife and Cultural Tours, and Farewell Harbour Lodge for your generous donations to our silent auction. Thank you to everyone who attended the evening!
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
