Pacific WildLife Foundation Projects for 2009

The Pacific WildLife Foundation conducts independent study of marine ecosystems throughout the Pacific Ocean with an aim of sharing the information with scientists and the public. We assemble teams of scientists to conduct the research and educators to provide the information to a variety of audiences from children to adults and multiethnic backgrounds. In all cases, our messages are based on the results of rigorous, objective scientific research. Most of the research and post-production work is done on contract. Many of our research projects are filmed for web broadcast, television or DVD. We provide advice and influence through numerous international and national scientific advisory panels and boards.

Our aim is to restore wild species populations to levels that are sustained by nature. Each of our projects originated in our conservation plan. Our focus is on recovery, restoration, and measuring change. 

New 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.

Marine Bird & Mammal Atlas

The PWLF and Bird Studies Canada will map the marine birds and mammals in the waters around the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve in British Columbia in 2008-09. We plan to use the results toward an ambitious project with several partners to map the distribution of marine birds and mammals on the entire BC coast.

The waters of the Strait of Georgia in southern British Columbia are important for southern resident killer whales, seals, porpoises, other marine mammals and birds. The Gulf Islands National Park Reserve requires information to manage the waters for these species. We intend to use the methods from this project in a multi-partner project to produce the first Marine Bird & Mammal Atlas for British Columbia. This project is led by PWLF President Rob Butler and Associate Peter Davidson.

 Oil Spill Recovery

 PWLF is researching how long seaducks are exposed to oil from the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.  

Although the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred 20 years ago (March 1989), scientists continue to evaluate long-term effects of the spill on the ecosystem of Prince William Sound, Alaska.  One of those scientists is PWLF Director Dan Esler, who has studied population recovery of sea ducks from the spill since 1994.  The work to date has shown that the harlequin duck and Barrow’s goldeneye - two sea ducks that winter along the coast where they eat benthic invertebrates - are particularly vulnerable to chronic effects of the spill.  Dr. Esler showed that these seaducks continued to be exposed to residual oil found in intertidal sediments on some beaches through 2007.  The PWLF is involved in continuing this work, through funding from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.  Dr. Esler and his research team will be in the field during March 2009 to sample harlequin duck and Barrow’s goldeneyes for ongoing exposure to oil.  This work continues an unprecedented level of monitoring following a major spill, and will lead to a fuller understanding of how ecosystems recover and the timeframe over which it occurs.

On-going projects 

Return of the Eagle

The Return of the Eagle project explores how the recovery of the eagle is echoed in the ecology of rivers and shores along the west coast of North America.

The return of the bald eagle to former abundance along the north Pacific began in the 1980s following a ban on the use of persistent chemicals and reduced persecution by humans. Today eagles are widespread and abundant. We think that spawning salmon is key to their survival as a source of food in autumn and winter. If this hunch is true, then the fate of eagles is tied to how well we conserve salmon stocks. The recovery of eagles also adds a new predator to the landscape. Eagles return to the coast to prey on seabirds and ducks after spawned salmon are gone from rivers in late winter that might affect where these birds choose to reside.

The objective of the Return of the Eagle project is to examine how prey species respond to the annual movements of eagles between the coast and salmon streams. The project began in the Strait of Georgia on the west coast of Canada in 2008 by Principal Investigators Dr. Rob Butler and Dr. Dan Esler and Associates Holly Middleton and Peter Davidson using a generous grant from the Seadoc Society. We are writing those results for publication. Rob Butler and Ron Ydenberg from PWLF in collaboration with Caroline Fox from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation are exploring how the seasonal abundance and distribution of eagles affect their prey along the coast. For more information on eagles, click here.

Return of the Humpback Whale

The Return of the Humpback project is documenting a slow return of these whales to the eastern Pacific Ocean and discovering where they travel through their lives.

In the 1980s the Pacific WildLife Foundation (then West Coast Whale Research) undertook pioneering research of humpback whales on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Now we are using those data to document their recovery along the east and west coasts of Vancouver Island. Identification of individual whales allows us to understand how whales use the waters of the Pacific. Humpback whales can be identified by markings on the undersides of their tail flukes. By regularly ‘sampling’ areas using photographs of whale’s tail flukes is the basis by which estimates of population size and definition are drawn. Over time a picture emerges how individuals use an area, how long they are present, their migratory destinations, birth interval and age of sexual maturity.  

Humpback whale photo-identification sampling occurs annually in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Canada, both through dedicated surveys by Dr. Jim Darling of PWLF, other researchers and contributions from whale watching operations in the region. All photo-identifications, in conjunction with ID collections from throughout the Pacific will be used to further our understanding of the abundance and behavior of humpbacks whales.  

The humpback whale was at one time, the most abundant large whale along the British Columbia coast. Commercial whaling between 1903 and 1966 killed nearly 2000 of them in British Columbia and the species was declared endangered worldwide in 1966. During the 1970s, humpbacks were occasionally reported along the west coast of Canada but it was not until the 1990s that the whales began to return to their former inshore waters. The good news is that the species is rebounding throughout the North Pacific as a result of protection from hunting, an abundance of food, and high reproductive potential. An estimated 20,000 humpbacks now occur in the North Pacific of which about 200-400 reside in summer in our Southern Vancouver Island study area. Whales photographed off Vancouver Island have also been seen in the breeding grounds near Hawaii, Mexico and Japan.

Long-term data collected since 1995 by Jim Darling has provided an insight into the rate of recovery of the whales and to make a link between the breeding sites in Mexico, Hawaii and Japan to the summer feeding grounds along Vancouver Island. The data includes 241 individuals photographed between 1995 and 2007.  It shows that 107 of the 241 individual whales were seen in two or more years, most quite recently.  Prior to 2001, most (97%) of the sightings were of new whales to the region compared to 60% in 2007. The recovery of the humpback took over three decades to begin and it will likely require many years before the recovery is complete. This information is critical to development of meaningful management and conservation policies. Our partners include Remote Passages and Jamie’s Whaling Station. For more information humpback whales click here and to learn more about this project or contribute, click here.

Black Oystercatcher Project

The Black Oystercatcher Project is using the biology of a common bird to provide signals of changes in ocean ecosystems.

If we hope that wild populations will continue to survive we need to ensure that natural conditions are in place to support them. The rocky shore of the northeast Pacific Ocean is home to an abundance of animals from sea otters to sea stars. The aim of the Black Oystercatcher Discovery project is to discover how much the oystercatcher can tell us about changes to the ecology of rocky shores by humans and the recovery of sea otters.

This research is led by Rob Butler and Associate Todd Golumbia in the Strait of Georgia in collaboration with Parks Canada’s Gulf Islands National Park Reserve to advise on the management of the rocky shore ecosystem. So far we have discovered that there are more oystercatchers in the Strait of Georgia than two decades ago and that nesting success is much greater in the sheltered waters of the Strait than on the outer shores where storm waves are a frequent occurrence. In 2007, colleagues on the west coast of Vancouver Island and Alaska attached transmitters on several oystercatchers to track movements. We collaborated by banding young oystercatchers with unique colour bands in the Strait of Georgia. We published a scientific paper in Northwest Science documenting the Strait-wide survey of locations of nesting oystercatchers. Click here to learn more about Black Oystercatchers. To read about recent results on this project, click here.

Steller Sea Lion Abundance

This project documents the seasonal movements of Steller sea lions and characterizes haulout use in Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds, British Columbia.

Steller sea lions are listed as a Species of Special Concern under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. Though Steller sea lions are known to disperse widely in some parts of their range, their seasonal movements and habitat use in Canada is poorly understood. Wendy Szaniszlo is leading this project to determine the seasonal abundance and movements of Steller sea lions in Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds, and characterize haulout use by sea lions based on sex and age classes. This work builds on previous sea lion studies conducted by Wendy, and on-going surveys done in collaboration with the National Marine Mammal Lab (NMML), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMML).

Steller sea lions occupy two year-round and five seasonal haulouts within Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds. Twenty percent of the BC population utilizes these haulouts, most of which are within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and the Clayoquot Biosphere Reserve. Previous research has demonstrated that haulouts are critical habitat and those haulouts where pups nurse are in particular need of protection. Understanding seasonal movements and haulout use will aid the making ecosystem-based management decisions for Steller sea lion conservation.

Surveys are being conducted monthly for three years at haulouts in Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds. Surveys began in July 2006 and will continue through to June 2009. Initial results indicate there is a marked seasonal difference in the number, age and sex of Steller sea lions at particular haulout sites. The high number of nursing pups indicates that some sites may be of particular seasonal importance for Steller sea lions.

The Clayoquot Biosphere Trust is funding this project. With support from Parks Canada, the Pacific WildLife Foundation and Bird Studies Canada, this project is being expanded to include Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. To learn more about sea lions, click here.

Current PWLF Projects

• Black Oystercatcher Project

• Return of the Humpback Whale

• Return of the Eagle