Marine Research & Conservation | Raincoast Conservation Foundation

Photo: A.S. Wright

British Columbia’s coastline is 900 kilometres as the crow flies, but includes over 27,000 kilometers of archipelago, inlets, islands and fjords. This geography fosters a spectacular diversity of life but also makes it vulnerable to a variety of threats, from oil spills to increasing industrialization. Our marine conservation program aims to protect marine mammals, marine birds and their habitats.

Initiatives in our Marine Research and Conservation Program

Protecting endangered killer whales

The WHaLE Project

Defining and Defending Marine Mammal Habitat

Marine Birds

Pacific Herring

A Southern Resident killer whale fin above the water in the Salish Sea with graphs from a research paper in the foreground.

Research: Compliance of small vessels to minimum distance regulations for humpback and killer whales in the Salish Sea

With myriad stressors in the Salish Sea, the last thing killer whales and humpbacks need is to be approached too closely by whale watching and recreational boats. The rise of ...
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Federal Minister presses pause on Terminal 2

It’s been a while since I’ve had much cause for optimism about the Port of Vancouver's plans for the Fraser estuary. That improved slightly on August 24th. In a six ...
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Terminal 2 Backgrounder: Impacts on Southern Resident killer whales

The Port of Vancouver is proposing to double the size of its shipping terminal at Roberts Bank (next to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal). The Port's existing terminal is already a ...
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Killer whales glide by in water, with a mountain and fog looming in the background, and a cover of the book, Spirits of the Coast, in the foreground.

A bond through salmon, language and grandmothers

About a year ago, I got a call from the Royal British Columbia Museum asking if I would like to contribute a chapter to a book they were producing on ...
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Terminal 2 at the end of a long causeway, with Vancouver Island in the distance.

Terminal 2 expansion threatens the Fraser estuary

The Port of Vancouver is proposing to double the size of its shipping terminal at Roberts Bank, putting further stress on an estuary that has already lost more than 70% ...
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A researcher puts a breath sampler in the water from a long pole while a killer whale swims in another frame.

Guide government action on Southern Resident killer whales before March 23

In the last two years, the federal government has taken initial measures to reduce noise and disturbance from vessels (to make it easier for whales to feed and communicate), and ...
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Southern Resident killer whales on the surface of the blue Salish Sea.

We are headed to the Supreme Court for Southern Resident killer whales

Today, Raincoast takes our work to protect Southern Resident killer whales from the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Working with Living Oceans ...
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J50 and J42, Southern Resident Killer Whales swim in the Salish Sea.

Trans Mountain Expansion & Southern Resident killer whales: Project background

Raincoast Conservation Foundation represented by Ecojustice have worked through the courts to protect Southern Resident killer whales from the threats posed by the Trans Mountain Expansion project. Timeline 2013 - ...
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A killer whale chases a chinook salmon in the Salish Sea.

Increasing salmon hatcheries could do more harm than good for Chinook and Southern Resident killer whales

In both British Columbia and Washington state, fishery managers, provincial and state legislators, the sports fishing lobby, and even the whale watching industry have advocated for increased production of hatchery ...
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Interview: Why our latest court challenge to the re-approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline is critical for the Salish Sea

The Southern Resident killer whales are a small declining population. The increase in tanker traffic associated with the Trans Mountain expansion will have a significant adverse effect on these killer ...
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