Last week, the government announced fisheries closures in some key Southern Resident foraging areas. While welcome news, the measures only partially address our concerns over food availability and disturbance to endangered killer whales…
One of the most abundant fish in BC waters, Raincoast scientists are studying the interactions between Pacific Herring and the coastal food web. Studies include the relationships between herring spawn events and the terrestrial mammals who feed upon them.
Researchers at Raincoast aimed to determine if the nutrients that herring contribute to intertidal and subtidal ecosystems during spawning events are cycling through coastal food webs. To determine this, our scientists adopted techniques used in salmon research ….
What is the Government of Canada doing to protect Southern Resident killer whales? Misty MacDuffee discusses how the overlapping risks to these whales have not been addressed as of May 2018, with host Adam Sterling at CFAX 1070
The National Energy Board recommended approval of the Trans Mountain expansion knowing the Kinder Morgan project would jeopardize the survival of the Southern Residents…
Conservation groups applaud today’s federal announcement that endangered Southern Resident killer whales face “imminent threats” to their survival and recovery. Prompted by this assessment, the Ministers also announced fisheries closures in key foraging areas …
Although we know that herring play a pivotal ecological role in nearshore ecosystems, from a scientific perspective little is known about the amount of energy and nutrients they transfer from the ocean to the land. Therefore, researchers at Raincoast Conservation Foundation, University of Victoria, and Dalhousie University, aimed to determine if the nutrients that herring…
Writing in the scientific journal, Conservation Letters, an international team of conservation scientists is challenging the conservation community to fully consider the ethics of trophy hunting and think critically about endorsing the practice as a key funding mechanism for wildlife protection. Read our new paper, “The elephant (head) in the room: A critical look at trophy…
Writing in the scientific journal, Conservation Letters, an international team of conservation scientists argue that trophy hunting – hunting that involves the collection of animal body parts, or “trophies,” – is morally wrong. Led by Chelsea Batavia from the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University, the authors identify trophy hunting as…
For years, British Columbia’s wildlife management practices, especially its wolf cull and grizzly bear hunt, have been controversial. In 2015, then-Premier Christy Clark defended the province’s wildlife policies, stating they were grounded in sound science. That, at least, was the claim. And not one unique to British Columbia. In fact, hunting in Canada and the…
With spring comes organized chaos as graduate students and research associates transition from laboratory work, data analysis and writing, to a flurry of preparation for an upcoming season of monitoring bears on the central coast of British Columbia. We are headed to Gitga’at, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xai’xais, Nuxalk and Wuikinuxv Territories to join…
In February of 2017, a team of researchers, including Raincoast senior scientist Dr. Paul Paquet, from five research facilities published their findings in Marine Ecology Progress Series: “Predictions from machine learning ensembles: Marine bird distribution and density on Canada’s Pacific coast”…