To Live with Whales The Diary of a whale watcher.

I thought id fill you all in on exactly what it is im going to be doing…

Cetacealab is a non profit whale research station run by Janie Wray & Herman Meuter. Built in 2001 on Gil Island, Northern British Columbia, Cetacealab is nested in the middle of the ‘The Great Bear Rainforest’, the 3rd largest untouched rainforest in the world. Also nicknamed ‘Whale Channel’, Cetacealab is the only manmade structure on Gil Island and is also home to wolves, black bears and even spirit bears. 

Since their arrival in 2001 with only a tent and a hydrophone they now have two spotting stations and a network of hydrohones throughout Caamano sound. Over the last decade with the help of vetran BC whale researchers John Ford and Graham Ellis they have collected a entire catalogue of photo identification ID’s and an acoustic database to allow a yearly census to be created for the entire population of the Northern Resident community of Killer whales.

Not only are they trying to establish the Caamano sound as a critical habitat for the Northern Residents but also a growing Humpback whale community, a large Fin whale community and various other marine and land wildlife.

With the Endbridge pipeline proposal of oil tanker vessel traffic moving directly through the sound now is the time to show people the sheer volume of wildlife that depend on this safe heaven for not only feeding, but breeding, playing and socializing. 

I, along with 5 other interns will be camping on Gil Island next to the research lab for 8 weeks to assist Janie & Herman collecting valuable photographic and acoustic data on these amazing animals in a hope that we can make a difference for their future. We will each also be working on individual projects whilst we are there, mine mainly focusing of filming and photographing this amazing place. 

This gives you an idea of where Gil Island is…

I will be using this blog to share my time with friends and family as much as i can while i’m away. 

Hopefully I’ll be getting more shots like these….