The Pacific Wildlife Foundation

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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“For nearly three decades, the West Coast Whale Research Foundation pioneered research of wild cetaceans in British Columbia. In 2003, we became the Pacific WildLife Foundation to reflect a wider role. We still conduct original research of cetaceans, and now include other marine animals and ecosystems. We have some exciting prospects over the next few years to share with you on this web site or you can contact us for details” - Dr. Rob Butler, President      

What's New

Watch the Amazing Black Oystercatcher Video - Tidecatchers

Eelgrass Mapping Video

Eelgrass Transplant Video

Ruth Foster Interview Video 

 

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. 

 

June 2008- Thanks to two generous donations, PWLF has purchased a 16.5 foot Titan rigid hull inflatable boat and motor that will allow us to quickly travel to coastal destinations in a variety of sea conditions. 

June 2008 -The Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia is one of the largest intact temperate rainforests in the world. The region is 
characteristically dotted with hundreds of islands and intersected by 
channels, passages and fjords but not many roads, so much of the 
rainforest has not been well explored. PWLF has partnered with Bird 
Studies Canada to visit the Great Bear Rianforest over the next 5 
years to document the distribution and abundance of birds for the 
British Columbia Breeding Bird Atlas. Thanks to generous support, PWLF 
spent 10 days in June documenting birds along the northern shore of 
Vancouver Island and the mainland. We plan to visit new areas in 2009. 
Contact us for details.

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

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More Pacific Wildlife Foundation Videos

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.

 

 
 
 

West Coast Whale Research Foundation to the Pacific WildLife Foundation

The West Coast Whale Research Foundation (WCWRF) was founded in 1980 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.

From Whales To Ecosystems - Everything Is Connected

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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