Published scientific literature

Raincoast is a team of scientists and conservationists that undertake primary research and publishes peer-reviewed science to inform our conservation objectives. As an evidence-based, conservation science organisation (science ENGO), that operates a research lab, research field station and a research/sailing vessel, we are unique in Canada.

Two people looking in a viewfinder at a salmon smolt while doing monitoring on the North Arm Jetty — Photo by Alex Harris / Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Two people analyzing bear hair. — Photo by Grant Callegari, Hakai Magazine

Investigate. Inform. Inspire.

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 gather information and build support for decisions that protect marine and terrestrial ecosystems, their components and processes. We conduct applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for the conservation debate and the collective body of scientific knowledge.

Peer-reviewed science publications

Salmon Stream Ecology Project

2015 March 11

Scientific literature

Raincoast’s Chum and Coho Stream Ecology Project is part of a larger research program at Simon Fraser University (SFU) that focuses on the interactions between salmon and their environments.

Maintaining Ethical Standards during Conservation Crises

2015 February 11

Scientific literature

Raincoast scientists publish response to paper advocating Alberta’s wolf cull in the name of caribou recovery. It addresses the ethics and science of the approach and methods…

Publication Summary

2015 January 26

Scientific literature

List of Raincoast’s peer-reviewed journal publications produced by our wolf, wild salmon, grizzly and marine programs to 2014

A lone killer whale swimming near a rocky out crop

New study shows Canada’s species at risk rarely recover

2014 December 8

Scientific literature

What do the North Atlantic Right Whale, the Woodland Caribou and the Spotted Bat all have in common? Like hundreds of other species in Canada, all three are at…

Wolves standing in the cross hairs of a gun sight

Hunted wolves are under stress

2014 November 18

Scientific literature

Journal Paper: Heavily hunted wolves have higher stress and reproductive steroids than wolves with lower hunting pressure…

Two grizzly bears walking next to each other.

Indigenous knowledge and science unite to reveal distributional shift in wildlife

2014 July 25

Scientific literature

Study by Raincoast and partners discusses the movement of grizzlies from BC’s mainland onto coastal islands in the journal PLOS ONE…

A wolf walks in the shallows, with a salmon in its mouth

Population genetic structure of gray wolves in a marine archipelago…

2014 July 13

Scientific literature

Researchers find differences between BC’s coastal and mainland wolves. Published in BMC Ecology

Time-delayed subsidies: Interspecies population effects in salmon

2014 June 10

Scientific literature

New study from SFU and Raincoast shows the benefits from higher numbers of spawning pink and chum salmon on coho…

A large salmon is lying on the ground in a river.

Spawning pink and chum salmon provide benefits to coho

2014 June 9

Backgrounders, Scientific literature

Research from SFU and Raincoast scientists shows juvenile coho salmon benefit from dining on the carcasses of spawning pink and chum salmon.

When Science-Based Management Isn’t

2014 March 25

Scientific literature

Raincoast & SFU scientists just published a letter in the international journal SCIENCE. It calls out the BC gov’t for making politically motivated decisions and calling them ‘scientific’…

3 smiling trophy hunters kneel behind the dead grizzly they have killed.

Confronting uncertainty in wildlife management: performance of grizzly bear management

2013 December 1

Scientific literature

Raincoast scientists and partners reveal that the excess mortality in the BC grizzly hunt (ie killing more bears than is sustainable) may have occurred in up to 70% of cases…

A black and white photo of a grizzly bear and its cub.

Grizzly bear hunt not founded in science say Raincoast scientists

2013 November 30

Scientific literature

“Confronting Uncertainty in Grizzly Bear Management” is a paper published by Raincoast scientists and our partners that challenges the BC government’s claim of sound scientific management over its grizzly hunt.