Raincoast Research Society
Working to protect and support wild Pacific salmon through science.
Raincoast Research is a science-based society committed to researching the devastating impacts of Atlantic salmon farming on British Columbia’s wild salmon stocks.
Partnering with scientists around the world, Raincoast Research has produced some of the first studies on salmon farm impacts in BC. It continues to break new ground in this field. Since its inception in 1981, Raincoast Research has published 26 peer-reviewed scientific studies on salmon farm impacts on whales and fish.
Raincoast Research is based in Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory, (the Broughton Archipelago), between Kingcome and Knight Inlets of northeast Vancouver Island. Through a relationship with the Salmon Coast Field Station, we offer field support for a small number of scientists and students interested in researching salmon farm impacts.
Originally established to research wild orca acoustics, Raincoast Research turned its focus to the impacts of farm salmon in order to protect wild salmon, the resident orca’s primary food. Raincoast continues to monitor and record whale and dolphin activity in the archipelago.
© Tavish Campbell.
A New Mandate
Conservation was not an obvious concern in the remote archipelago when Alexandra Morton established Raincoast Research Society in 1984. Whales were abundant, salmon plentiful, and the float home fishing community of Echo Bay was thriving.
Raincoast set out to study the acoustics of wild orca:
- Documenting the passage of each whale family through Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory.
- Recording in 1984, the exciting return of the Pacific white-sided dolphin after a 70-year absence.
- Recording the return of the humpback whales after commercial whaling ended.
- Producing the first photo catalogue of more than 900 dolphins – to help better understand dolphin social systems and use of the area.
In the late eighties, Raincoast Research expanded its mandate and became actively involved in measuring the first impacts of salmon farms on the region. As the sole biologist in the area, Alexandra Morton was on the front line of documenting the industry’s impacts. She began investigating as local fisherman reported their concerns to her and the whales she was studying abandoned the area. This has led to nearly 30 years of effort to protect the BC coast from the impacts of industrial salmon farming.