The Pacific Wildlife Foundation

30 years of Conservation Research

Pacific Wildlife Foundation

 
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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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Support for our foundation has grown steadily over the years. From videographers, designers, musicians, field workers, financial donors, writers, researchers and many others we have benefited in carrying out our research and education projects. We are very grateful for your support.     Rob Butler, President.      

What's New

Watch the Amazing Black Oystercatcher Video - Tidecatchers

 

A long history of pioneering research and education has become the cornerstone of the Pacific WildLife Foundation's influence and recognition.  Our mission is to inspire conservation of coastal and marine ecosystems through scientific inquiry and education. Our conservation advice and actions are based on objective science where the results of research guide the decisions. Your support lets us continue pioneering research to rebuild ecosystems, aid the recovery of whales, provide innovative education to a wide audience and much more.

 How You Can Help

 

January 14, 2010 -  The Pacific WildLife Foundation video Eagle Among the Swarm airs on Knowledge Network starting this month and we will be teaming up with PWLF Associate Mike McKinlay Productions to make a series of short videos for Knowledge in the coming months.  

January 2010 - Associate Ruth Foster is featured in the first prize My Hero film short by 4th grader Miranda Andersen. Also, Associate Mike McKinlay's video Eagle Among the Swarm will air on the Knowledge Network in British Columbia starting in January. 

PACIFIC WILDLIFE FOUNDATION CELEBRATES 30 YEARS!

In 1980, a small group of people interested in the plight of whales 
joined Dr. Jim Darling, one of the world’s eminent whale research 
scientists, to establish the West Coast Whale Research Foundation 
(WCWRF). At that time, WCWRF was among the first organizations devoted 
to researching and educating the public about wild whales. With 
generous public support, WCWRF achieved many successes including 
pioneering research of gray whales, humpback whales and killer whales, 
television documentaries, expeditions, and stories in the 
international media. WCWRF also attracted the attention of biologists 
working in marine disciplines who supported the WCWRF’s approach to 
objective scientific research, public education and coastal wildlife 
conservation. In 2003, WCWRF transitioned into the Pacific WildLife 
Foundation (PWLF), a charitable organization operating with the same 
credo as WCWRF but with vastly expanded fields of study that 
potentially include all Pacific marine and coastal wildlife. Led now 
by prominent British Columbia biologist Dr. Rob Butler and with an 
expanded group of scientists, including Dr. Darling, PWLF has grown in 
size and scope as well as in the public support for its work for which 
it is profoundly grateful. The Pacific WildLife Foundation is proud of 
its heritage and its mandate of “objective science for conservation”. 
We are confident that it remains the key to public education about the 
important role that conservation must play in a rapidly expanding 
human world.

 

Swallow-tailed Gull Creagus furcatus added

 

November 4, 2009 -  The Pacific Wildlife Foundation is pleased to have been selected by the Celebrity Infinity of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. as their environmental partner for the Innovative Ship Award. The award includes a generous donation to the Pacific Wildlife Foundation.  

 

September 25, 2009 -  Proceedings from the Salish Sea Ecosystem Symposium are available on line. The Salish Sea refers to the combined waters of Puget Sound, Washington and the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia.

 

September 2009 - PWLF sponsored an expedition to Bute Inlet led by Ron Ydenberg to investigate the role of deer browsing on vegetation along salmon bearing streams. Accompanying Ron were Rod MacVicar and Rob Butler from PWLF and Herbert Prins and 6 colleagues and students from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The expedition included three days at the Orford River where we were generously hosted by the Homalco First Nations on their reserve. The Band is making improvements to their hatchery and guiding bear tours.

 

Blue Whale Photos Added

 

August 2009 – The first World Seabird Conference will be held in Victoria, Canada September 7-11, 2010. For more information go to their web site

 

Aug 2009 - Large numbers of American wigeon rely upon agricultural land in the Fraser delta to sustain them through the winter. The delta has been shaped by people to create rich farmland and living spaces and is a major thoroughfare for people and our goods. We have intensified our land use creating berry fields, busy roads, greenhouses and housing often next to wigeon habitat. The presence of these land use types may alter wigeon behaviour. If wigeon perceive these land use types as a danger it may cause them to avoid areas close to the land use types altering the amount of habitat available to them.

PWLF is supporting this research led by PWLF Board member Ron Ydenberg and conducted by Research Associate and SFU PhD candidate Holly Middleton. The study will aim to understand the response of wigeon to these land use types and model the amount of habitat that remains for wigeon under a number of possible land use scenarios in the region. The study will run for two winters and conclude at the end of 2011.

 

July 25, 2009 -  A fin whale arrived in Vancouver harbour last night on the bow of a cruise ship. Fin whales are uncommon in BC waters and spend most of the time in the open ocean. The cruise ship had travelled to Vancouver from Alaska and likely carried the whale a long distance. This is the second occurrence of a fin whale on the bow a cruise ship in Vancouver. Ten years ago a fin whale that arrived on the bow of a ship was taken to Telegraph Cove  where the bones are now on display at the Whale Museum

 

July 14, 2009 -  Dan Scanlan reported seeing a basking shark on June 13 in Nootka Sound. This sighting is important since so few records of this once numerous shark have been made in BC waters in recent years.

 

July 9, 2009 -  Our eelgrass transplant has taken root. Several hundred shoots transplanted to Port Moody by our volunteers last May are healthy and attracting fish. The project has taught us much about transplanting eelgrass and we intend to follow the ecological changes brought on as the bed grows. Our success is dampened by the findings published in the June Proceedings of the National Academy of Science indicating widespread loss of seagrass beds around the world.  

 

June 23, 2009 -  Some good news. Life is beginning to establish in an eelgrass meadow planted by PWLF earlier this year in Port Moody, British Columbia. Hundreds of transplanted healthy eelgrass shoots appear to have rooted. Shiner sea perch were swimming among the plants and hermit crabs were clinging to the blades. It is still early to know if the eelgrass will succeed in re-establishing in the inlet but these are encouraging signs. We extend out thanks to all our supporters.

 

June 13, 2009 -  One of PWLF's longest running projects is documenting the Return of the Humpback to the coast of British Columbia. Today we saw a lone humpback about 2 nautical miles northwest of Mitlenatch Island in northern Strait of Georgia. Humpbacks are regularly seen in Juan de Fuca Strait and Puget Sound near the southern entrance of the Strait of Georgia, and to the north in Queen Charlotte Strait but sightings in the Strait of Georgia are less common. These sightings suggest the recovery of the humpback whale to the Strait is continuing. A century ago, an estimated 300 humpbacks used the Strait of Georgia each year.   

 

Eelgrass Inventory Field Report by Seachange Marine Conservation Society for the Pacific WildLife Foundation

 

February 2009 -  You can read Rob Butler's Op Ed piece in the Vancouver Sun about the benefits of nature in our health and childhood development by clicking here and you can read his blog at the Vancouver Sun by clicking here.   

 

December 2008 -  Parks Canada has provided PWLF and Bird Studies Canada 
with funds for a marine bird and mammal survey of the Gulf Islands. This work
will develop the protocols for a proposed Marine Bird and Mammal Atlas for British
Columbia that we will conduct with several partners. 

September 2008 -  Jane Russell, Amyn Jessa and David Guzzo from TD 
Bank presented a cheque to Rob Butler and Rod MacVicar towards PWLF's 
eelgrass restoration project as part of the opening celebration of TD 
Bank's new branch in Port Moody. Corporate support of our activities 
is greatly appreciated.

Lingcod Ophiodon elongatus added

 

Bay Pipefish (Sygnathus leptorhynchus) added

 

Black-footed Albatross Photos Added

 

Eelgrass added

Eelgrass project aims to harness power of plants

July 2008- The fourth edition of the Clayoquot Sound Humpback Whale Fluke Identification Catalog is available now. The catalog documents all whales identified in the region of Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, including the Clayoqout Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, between 1995 and 2007. Contact us for details. 

July 2008 - Wendy Szaniszlo is a new Associate of the PWLF. Her graduate work researched sea lion behavioural ecology and evaluated the sea lion viewing guidelines in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. She will investigate the seasonal abundance and distribution of sea lions in Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds in collaboration with the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

 

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

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

Bute Inlet Video

get the flash player to see this player.

 

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 

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.

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.

 

 

 
 

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 Chal 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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