Alexandra Morton

Alexandra Morton may live far from the public eye, tucked away in Echo Bay, the tiny community of docks and float homes on Gilford Island, British Columbia, but her passion and life work has often brought her into the spotlight.

 

For more than 3 decades, Morton has followed her calling to "understand the intelligence in a non-human mind, to know what another species is thinking," and today she is an outspoken advocate for conserving and protecting marine species on Canada's west coast. In the early years, she devoted her time to analyzing and recording the communication between killer whales (Orcas) and discovered that each family of BC whales uses a unique dialect. In 1979 her work studying the vocalizations of free-ranging whales eventually brought her to the home of one of the largest Orca populations in the world—the Johnstone Strait, located on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.

 

Shortly after moving to Echo Bay with her husband Robin Morton, who later died in a tragic diving accident, Morton formed a non-profit charitable society now called Raincoast Research Society—to conduct year-round research on the acoustics of the orca of the British Columbia coast. However, according to the organization's Web site, over the years the mandate has broadened. "Initially, Raincoast Research focused only on the orca, documenting passage of every whale through the area. Conservation was not an obvious concern when the work commenced in 1984 in a remote archipelago between Kingcome and Knight Inlets called the Broughton Archipelago. Whales were abundant, salmon plentiful and the local community of floating homes (Echo Bay) thriving."

 

But then things changed drastically.

 

In 1987 the first salmon farm appeared in the archipelago, and anticipation of jobs and prosperity as well as conservation of the wild salmon stocks soon turned to disappointment. "The archipelago began to flash warning lights of ecological collapse—toxic algae blooms, explosive disease and parasitic events in salmon, hundreds of seals and some sea lions shot, the orca vanished and the human community began a downward spiral towards ghost town. As the wild salmon went, so went the humans." As a result, Raincoast Research shifted its focus to studying the impacts of salmon farming, work Morton and others argue the government refuses to do. Today the organization works with scientists around the world to measure the negative impact of salmon farms on fish and whales.

 

In 2009, Morton launched and won a legal challenge in the BC Supreme Court that forced the provincial government to hand over fish-farm management to the federal government. Morton believes that the same body promoting aquaculture cannot be the one regulating it.

 

In September 2011, Morton took the stand at the Cohen Commission—an inquiry to investigate the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye runs where only 1 million of an anticipated 10 million wild salmon returned. Morton links the collapse and the overall degradation of the wild stocks to diseases being spread by the salmon farms located along, and in very close proximity to, the migration route of the wild stocks.

 

In 2010, Simon Fraser University awarded Morton with an Honorary Doctorate of Science, recognizing her commitment as a biologist and activist and her work linking sea lice infestation in wild salmon to fish farming in the Broughton Archipelago—work, which has drawn international attention and challenged both the salmon farm industry and the government officials who regulate it.

Morton has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles as well as books about Orca vocalizations as well as about the factors affecting the decline in wild salmon populations. She has also authored several books including her 2002 book Listening to Whales and in 2004 coauthored A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming. Today, her home in Echo Bay has become the Salmon Coast Field Station and is available to scientists who wanted to further study impact of salmon farms.

 

 

 

 

Morton, A.B. 1991 Siwiti – A Whale’s Story. Orca Books, Victoria.
Morton, A.B. 1993. In the Company of Whales, from the Diary of a Whale Watcher. Orca Books, Victoria.
Morton, A.B. 1999. "Life Among the Whales." In: Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals. (L. Hogan and B. Peterson, eds.). Ballantine Books, New York.
Morton, A.B. and Bill Proctor. 1998. Heart of the Raincoast. Horsdal and Schubart, Victoria.
Morton, A.B. 2002. Listening to Whales. Random House, New York.
Morton, A.B. 2004. Beyond the Whales. Heritage Press, Victoria.
Morton, A.B. et al. 2005. "A Stain Upon the Sea." Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park.