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If you would like to make a donation to The Pacific WildLife Foundation you can use our secure online site or your donation can be mailed to our office.

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“The Pacific WildLife Foundation believes that conducting objective science is the best way to understand nature, and applying advice in innovative ways is the best way to inform society. The number of awards and honours we have received indicates that many people agree with this approach. There is much more to do in the coming years. If you like what you see on this web site, tell us about it, and consider becoming a supporter".       

Rob Butler, President.         

What's New

April 2012 – Read about PWLF Director Jim Darling and Fellow Andrew Trites's research in the Vancouver Sun.

 

February 2012 – PWLF Fellow Andrew Trites explains his sea lion research on BBC News.

 

January 2012 – The Board of Directors welcomes Drs. Larry Dill and Alejandro Frid as a newly elected Fellows. Dr.Dill is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biological Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He brings a lifetime of research expertise particularly into the role of behaviour in mediating animal interactions in marine ecosystems. Dr. Frid is an ecologist whose research has included endangered South American deer, industrial development and terrestrial wildlife, and predator and prey behaviour in marine communities.

 

Galapagos Sea Lion Zalophus wollebaeki added

 

January 2012 - PWLF joins WetlandsLiVE an exciting, FREE on line education program for students in grades 4 to 8 and their educators. We are providing advice, video footage and will be featured on the program when it goes worldwide in October 2012.

 

December 2011 – PWLF Director Rod MacVicar and President Rob Butler joined PWLF Director Jim Darling in Hawaii where they photographed humpback whale known as ‘Scooper’. Jan Straley in Alaska informed us that Scooper was photographed by Chuck Jurasz over 30 years ago in Icy Strait near Juneau, Alaska.

 

The Pacific WildLife Foundation | Nonprofits & Fundraising

This book is a compendium of projects being done by the marine biologists of the Pacific WildLife Foundation.

 

Status and Distribution of Marine Birds and Mammals in the Southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia.

 

Follow PWLF President Rob Butler's Blog

 

Pacific WildLife Foundation Projects for 2012

 

PWLF Fellow Dr. Andrew Trites of the UBC Fisheries Centre will speak on November 12 at 8:15 in Lecture Hall 2 of the UBC Woodward Instructional Resources Centre on 'The Puzzling Disappearance of Sea Lions in Alaska: Is the North Pacific Ecosystem on the Verge of Collapse? " For more information go to
http://www.vaninst.ca/VbTrites2.html
 

October 2011 – The Board of Directors welcomes Dr. Richard Rawlins from the Rush Medical Centre in Chicago as a newly elected Fellow of PWLF. Dr. Rawlins brings decades of expertise in reproductive physiology and marketing skills to PWLF. More.

 

Aug 2011 – The 4th Western Hemisphere Shorebird Research Group conference concluded at Simon Fraser University earlier this month. About 150 biologists from the Western Hemisphere assembled for four days of scientific presentations. The science surrounding several conservation issues pertaining to shorebirds was discussed. The PWLF was pleased to be a partner with the Centre for Wildlife Ecology at Simon Fraser University for this successful conference.

 

Aug 2011 – Follow the Pacific WildLife Foundation's Twitter feed to learn about the latest PWLF news, projects and videos. Our Twitter Link

 

June 2011 – PWLF has just finished an expedition to count seabirds and songbirds among the northern islands of the Salish Sea. This project is part of an on-going 5 year partnership for the BC Breeding Bird Atlas. The expedition found a few new seabird colonies and surveyed forest birds on four large islands. The results of the expedition will be added to the growing data base on line at the Breeding Bird Atlas web site.

 

June 2011 – PWLF's Director Jim Darling and his colleagues recently published a paper on the genetics of gray whales. You can read it by clicking here

 

April 2011 – The mystery of migration by one of the Pacific coast iconic sea ducks is beginning to unfold thanks to the work of Dan Esler and Sean Boyd from PWLF. They fitted satellite tracking radios to Barrow's goldeneyes that keep tabs on their migratory movements in western Canada and Alaska. Read more about this collaborative project by clicking here.

 

April 2011 – The Board of Directors welcomes Dr. Andrew Trites from the University of British Columbia as a newly elected Fellow of PWLF. Dr. Trites brings a wealth of expertise in marine mammal research and public outreach that is a core value of PWLF including the installation of the Blue Whale exhibit at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum

 

March 2011 –Dr. John Reynolds, Fellow of PWLF and Morgan Hocking have just published a paper in Science showing that salmon influence which species of streamside plants live along streams in the Great Bear Rainforest. Read the paper.

 

March 2011 –The 4th Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group Meeting will be held at Simon Fraser University and Fraser River Delta in Vancouver, British Columbia August 11-15, 2011. Call for Papers, registration, and information on applying for travel awards are now posted on the website.

WEBSITE: www.sfu.ca/biology/wildberg/4WHSG/4WHSG.htm

CONFERENCE E-MAIL : WHSGmeet@sfu.ca

Funding is available to facilitate participation by biologists with expertise in shorebird biology in the Neotropics.

D. B. Lank and R.C. Ydenberg, co-chairs

 

December 2010 - PWLF’s accomplishments for 2010 range from genetic and behavioural studies, through oil spill recovery and habitat restoration to video productions. Here are some of our accomplishments at a glance:

Gray whales that spend the summer along beaches between Alaska and California are genetically different from the rest of the eastern Pacific herd. This discovery has raised the awareness of the importance of the small number of gray whales that spend the summer along the North American Coast.

Harlequin ducks and Barrow’s goldeneyes – two abundant Pacific sea ducks - still show effects of oil from the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years later.

The Salish Sea is an important nesting area for about 210 pairs of oystercatchers on islands that are now largely protected.

A year-round assessment of important areas used by marine mammals and birds was presented to the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve staff.

Steller sea lions use year-round and seasonal haul outs on the west coast of Vancouver Island, some by large numbers of mothers nursing pups.

The recovery of humpback whales off the BC coast is well underway and many individuals are being seen each year.

Award winning PWLF video Eagle Among the Swarm aired on the Knowledge Network and is touring North American film festivals.

 

October 2010 - PWLF is lending its support to the 4th Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group meeting to be held 11-15 August 2011 at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group also has a facebook page. 

 

September 2010 – Mike McKinlay's video 'Eagle Among the Swarm' was voted Best Picture in the Ocean of Wings Festival to be held in conjunction with the World Seabird Conference in Victoria, British Columbia. The video can be viewed here on our web site. Click here to watch.

 

July 2010 – A recent investigation by Drs. Jim Darling of PWLF and Tim Frasier of St. Mary’s University of the genetics of gray whales indicates that the individuals that spend the summer along the coast of British Columbia are a distinct genetic entity compared to the entire herd of eastern Pacific gray whales. More

 

 July 2010 – JAMESTOWN, NY - Rod MacVicar of the PWLF has been selected as one of three recipients of the 2010 Blanche Hornbeck Award for Excellence in Nature Education, given by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History to honor those who exemplify the life mission and work of the great nature educator, artist, writer and photographer Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996). More

 

 June 2010 – PWLF completed a research trip to Clayoquot Sound to survey birds for the BC Breeding Bird Atlas. We are one of seven partners who are leading this initiative to map the breeding birds of British Columbia. We are also documenting seabirds at colonies along the entire coast for the atlas. 

 

 June 2010 – For many years, Remote Passages based in Tofino has generously supported our ongoing whale research. We extend our thanks to them again this year for their commitment to PWLF. 

 

Some Recent PWLF Publications

 

Butler, RW and TE Golumbia. 2008. Status of Breeding Black Oystercatchers, Haematopus bachmani, In the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia. Northwest Naturalist 89:37-40.

Butler, R.W. 2009. Twenty years on: advances in ecological understanding of globally important birds in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, and Puget Sound, Washington. Marine Ornithology 37: 2.

Butler, RW, RM MacVicar and JD Darling. 2010. Pacific Wildlife. Pacific WildLife Foundation. A book celebrating our 30th anniversary available at blurb.com

Byington, J and JD Darling. 2009. Clayoquot Sound gray whale fluke identification catalogue 2006-2007-2008. Pacific WildLife Foundation. View

Byington, J and JD Darling. 2010. Clayoquot Sound humpback whale fluke identification catalogue 1995-2009. Pacific WildLife Foundation. View

Darling, JD. 2009. Hawaii’s Humpbacks: Unveiling the mysteries. Granville Island Publishing, Vancouver, BC

Davidson, P., R. W. Butler, A. Couturier, S. Marquez and D. LePage. 2010. Status and Distribution of Marine Birds and Mammals in the Southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia. Report from Bird Studies Canada and Pacific WildLife Foundation.

Esler, D., et al. 2010. Cytochrome P4501A biomarker indication of oil exposure in harlequin ducks up to 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 29:1138-1145.

 
 

The Pacific Wildlife Foundation is a non-profit coastal and marine research and education society  that inspires an appreciation for objective scientific research and conservation of the ocean. We conduct original research, develop novel education programs, and inspire an appreciation for conservation of the ocean. 

Pacific WildLife Foundation Video

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Basking Shark Video - Have you seen this shark?

       Click to see Video

More Pacific Wildlife Foundation Videos

Eelgrass Mapping Video

Eelgrass Transplant Video

Ruth Foster Interview Video 

Black Oystercatcher Video - Tidecatchers

 

Northwestern Crow

Corvus caurinus

Wily, noisy and ubiquitous, the northwestern crow is a seashore predator of marine invertebrates, and birds’ eggs and chicks along the Pacific Coast from Washington to southern Alaska. The crow is found mostly around human habitation but it also occurs along beaches and on seabird islands. 

The major food items include a variety of marine and terrestrial invertebrates. Its diet includes a beach smorgasbord of clams, whelks, crustaceans, sea urchins and small fish. On land it eats, insects, eggs and nestlings of cormorants, gulls, songbirds, oystercatchers, auklets, and herons, as well as fruits, and carrion. Some surplus food is cached for later consumption.

Learn more about Northwestern Crows

Pacific WildLife Projects

Mapping British Columbia’s Birds

British Columbia has over 300 species of breeding birds – more than any province in Canada. PWLF is one of the partners working with Bird Studies Canada to map the distribution and abundance of all breeding bird species in BC.

Dr. Rob Butler of PWLF is coordinating the BC Breeding Bird Atlas Project for Bird Studies Canada and its partners. The aim of the atlas project is to map the distribution and abundance of breeding birds throughout the province. The results will form the foundation for government conservation policy in the years to come. PWLF will participate using our boating and wildlife skills along the remote BC coast.

Underwater Gallery

  Pacific Wildlife Foundation

 

Basking Shark

Cetorhinus maximus

Basking Shark Identification Guide

The basking shark is the world's second largest fish next to the whale shark (Rhincodon typus). Both species are gentle, slow moving plankton-feeding creatures. The basking shark is found throughout much of the temperate oceans in both hemispheres of the world. The basking shark gathers in large numbers where there is an abundance of plankton. Some individuals are 14 meters long and weigh up to 7 tonnes. Males reach an average of 9 meters, females 9.8 meters. Between seasons, basking sharks will travel hundreds of kilometers.

Learn more about Basking Sharks

 

Wildlife of the Pacific

Blue Whale

Balaenoptera musculus

The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever lived on Earth. It weighs up to 136,000 kg and is as long as 34 m. It is pale blue-gray in colour with a tiny dorsal fin. Blue whales occur in cold and temperate regions where the water is deep. They travel alone, as mother and calves, and rarely as adult pairs. Only occasionally do they gather in loose groups to feed. The blue whale is found in all the oceans of the world. The blue whale is known to occur in the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. .  There are three subspecies.  B. m.  intermedia occurs in Antarctic waters, B. m. musculus is found in the northern hemisphere and B. m.  brevicauda also known as the pygmy” blue whale is found in the southern Indian Ocean and southwest Pacific Ocean. The number of blue whales was greatly depleted by commercial whaling before 1964.

Blue Whale Feeding Behaviour

The blue whale eats mostly on euphasiids or ‘krill’ during the summer feeding season and lives off stored fat for the remaining eight months of the year. Blue whales make shallow dives that last for 10 to 20 minutes while feeding on krill near the surface. Deep dives are preceded by headstands that reveal wide tail flukes. Returning to the surface, the whale exhales blows that rise about 10 meters in the air. Blue whales eat over five tonnes of food each day during the summer feeding season. During the other 8 months of the year, it apparently doesn't eat anything, living off of stored fat. The blue whale gulps in large quantities of krill and seawater and then uses it tongue to forces the water out through the baleen plates.

 

From Whales To Ecosystems - 'Everything Is Connected'

The West Coast Whale Research Foundation (WCWRF) was founded in 1981 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. 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-chah-nulth culture on the west coast of North America that simply states, “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.

 
 
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