Alexandra Morton

Alexandra Morton
Born (1957-07-13) July 13, 1957
Lakeville, Connecticut, US
Residence Echo Bay, British Columbia, Canada
Citizenship American, Canadian
Fields Cetology, marine biology
Institutions Raincoast Research Society
Alma mater American University
Known for Killer whale research, conservation
Influences Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Michael Bigg

Alexandra Bryant Morton is a biologist who settled in Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis First Nation territory in British Columbia, Canada to study wild orca (killer whales) in 1984. Morton made her home in Echo Bay - a community without roads, electricity or stores. In 1987, salmon farms moved into the region. At first Morton thought they were a good idea, but within a few years the changes to the archipelago became a concern to the people in the region. Since then, Alexandra Morton has published extensively on the impact of salmon farms on whales and salmon. Morton dedicated her life to this cause. Morton’s work was featured on CBS' 60 Minutes on May 11, 2014.

Early life and education

Alexandra Bryant Hubbard was born on July 13, 1957 in Lakeville, Connecticut. In her memoir, Listening to Whales, she said of her birthplace, "I can't imagine a more whaleless environment."[1] Her father was an artist and her mother, a writer. Hubbard said that her passion for animals came from the time when she would explore the woods with her brother. In 1977, she started working with psychonaut John C. Lilly as a volunteer in the Human/Dolphin Society. She catalogued 2,000 audio recordings of bottlenose dolphins. She then graduated Magna cum Laude from an arts college called American University with a two year Bachelor of Science diploma.[2]

Personal life

Hubbard married Canadian wildlife filmmaker Robin Morton in 1981.[3] The couple had a son, Jarret.[4] In 1986 however, her husband drowned after his diving equipment failed. Morton decided to continue her study alone. In 1997, Morton became a Canadian citizen while keeping her American citizenship.

Study of captive orcas

While in California, Morton studied the communications of dolphins at Marineland of the Pacific in Palos Verdes. When she realized there were too many individuals and that bottlenose dolphins are too quick to record their behaviour, Morton decided to shift her study toward Marineland’s pair of orcas, Orky and Corky, whom she had previously called "boring" because they spent long periods of time just floating while calling back and forth to each other. Morton observed the pair when the female gave birth to the first orca conceived in captivity. She was interested in studying how baby orcas picked up new language. However, that baby died and none of other babies survived more than 45 days. Following the passing of each of the little whales Morton recorded from Corky a behaviour that could only be described as mourning. The young mother lay on the bottom of the tank repeating the same call over and over, stopping only to gulp another breath of air. The calls became raspy as the whale vocalized day and night. Morton also discovered that orcas invented games to distract themselves. One, the "Double Layout", consisted in Orky and Corky lying on their backs, putting their flukes on the platform next to the tank and raising their right flipper simultaneously. The most interesting behavior was the dawn greeting where both whales pressed their tongues against the tank wall where the first shaft of sunlight hit.

Arrival in British Columbia

In 1979, Morton contacted pioneering killer whale researcher Dr. Michael Bigg who told her Corky and Orky had come from A5 Pod in British Columbia. He knew this from the capture photos as he could see the terrified young Corky pressed against the side of her mother. Dr. Bigg had photos of this mother whale and her sisters and he knew they visited Johnstone Strait every summer near Alert Bay, BC. Morton spent her summer there and found A5 pod as well as other orca families. The next summer, she returned to British Columbia and met Robin Morton. Alexandra Morton’s shifted her study to wild orcas, feeling terrible that she was spending time with Corky’s family, while Corkey remained locked in a tank in southern California. Robin and Alexandra moved onto a boat so that they could follow whales, the boat was called The Blue Fjord. To support their work, Alexandra and her husband rented out their boat for tourists and researchers. In 1984, while following the A12 matriline in Northeastern Vancouver Island, Morton came across the village of Echo Bay, British Columbia in the Broughton Archipelago.[5] She and her husband decided to settle there to pursue their study of wild killer whales.

Killer whale research

Photo-identification

In 1973, marine biologist Dr. Michael Bigg developed a pioneering photo identification system which consists of photographing the dorsal fin and saddle patch of each killer whale. Starting in 1975, Bigg and his colleagues began assembling catalogues containing the genealogical tree of every killer whale family in British Columbia and an ID photo of each orca. Since arriving in the Broughton Archipelago, Morton has been one of the main contributors to theses catalogues, providing ID photos of northern resident as well as of transient killer whales.

Transient Orcas

For many years,only the resident orcas were intensely studied. As their predictable behaviour and particularly stable social structure enabled researchers to follow them easily over a whole summer. Transients, on the contrary, have erratic route patterns and are thus difficult to study. However, the Broughton Archipelago where she lived was frequented by many transient groups and since the mid eighties, Morton has been conducting the study of this little known community. One of her main discoveries has been that the differences in feeding habits between residents and transients lead each community to different lifestyles and behaviours. Transients, now named Biggs whales, eat only warm-blooded prey, residents eat only fish. She noted that transients, unlike residents, are mostly silent. As their mammalian prey have very good hearing, vocalizing could alert them of the predators approaching. Moreover, the seals and sea lions’ good eyesight and their ability to teach their offspring make it imperative for transients to swim as stealthily as possible, thus explaining the transients' longer dives than residents and their habit of hiding their breath and clicks (used for echolocation) among other noises present in the sea. One transient Morton knew well even used to hide behind her boat to avoid being detected by potential prey. In 1987, Morton expanded her study to pacific white-sided dolphins which had come back to the archipelago three years prior.[6]

Raincoast Research Society

In 1981, Morton founded Lore Quest (renamed Raincoast Research Society). Its original purpose was, according to its website, to "conduct year-round research on the acoustics of the orca of the British Columbia coast".[7] Over the years, Raincoast Research has also been involved in making identification catalogues of the Pacific-White-Sided Dolphin population in British Columbia. Following the expansion of the salmon farming industry in the Broughton Archipelago, Raincoast Research Society has been a leader in studies on the impact of salmon farming and has provided support for a number of field workers and scientists interested in this subject.

Through Raincoast Research Society Morton has published extensively on the impact of sea lice from salmon farms on wild salmon. In 2011, Morton began the controversial work of tracking three European salmon farm virus in British Columbia, Canada, publishing in 2013 on the piscine reovirus. [8]

Salmon Research

Net-pen salmon farms arrived in British Columbia in the 1970s but began to proliferate by the late 1980s. By 2000, 90% of salmon farms in the province were Norwegian owned, and contain Atlantic salmon. Since then, the salmon farming industry has grown, notably in the Broughton Archipelago. Recently corporate giant Mitsubishi bought a company with many salmon farms in BC.

Morton began to study the effects salmon farming brings to the coast of British Columbia, particularly to wild salmon populations, which experienced major declines since in the introduction of salmon farms in the area.

On May 12 2015, Morton, as Director of Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society, released a 24-page booklet, Salmon Confidential: The ugly truth about Canada’s open-net salmon farms. The booklet makes the case that the wild-salmon-focused economy of British Columbia far outweighs the contributions of salmon farms. Funded entirely by donations, the booklet has been sent to all federal Members of Parliament and the provincial representatives in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The booklet explores the issues of sea lice, impacts on lobster fisheries, challenges to bio-security, salmon viruses, exotic species, and the local economy.

Seals

Starting in 1993, Morton began an active campaign against Acoustic Harassment Devices (AHD), which salmon farmers used to deter seals that approached the farms. Sound being killer whales’ main tool for foraging and travelling, the resident fish-eating whales left the Broughton Archipelago. Morton’s campaign, which included sending 10,000 letters to government officials, paid off in 2001 when salmon farmers withdrew the use of AHDs.[10] However, the damage had been done and the resident orca had abandoned the area.

Sea Lice

Morton has been studying the effects of sea lice on wild salmon populations. By collaborating with international scientists, Morton has documented the loss of the whales, thousands of escaped farm salmon, including Atlantic salmon, lethal outbreaks of sea lice, and antibiotic resistance near salmon farms. She has called for further efforts to limit the spread of sea lice and move salmon farms further offshore so they have less impact on wild salmon.[11]

Manure

Salmon farmers are one of the few farmers that never shovel their manure. As salmon farms use roughly 7 tons of feed daily for the approximate 600,000 fish per farm, tons of waste spews daily per farm in a free flush. Increasingly, farmed salmon are fed grains, chicken and pig parts, fish from different oceans, chemicals to colour their flesh, delousing drugs, antibiotics and vaccinations.

Salmon Coast Field Station

In 2006, Morton formed the Salmon Coast Field Station with the help of Sarah Haney to host researchers studying the impact of salmon farms on the marine environment. Morton understands that science is essential to protecting the living world. The facility hosts researchers from universities throughout Canada and elsewhere at minimal costs to the projects.

Salmon are Sacred

In the spring of 2010, Morton helped found the social movement Salmon Are Sacred to make people aware of the value of salmon to society. Wild salmon are a keystone species [9] feeding wildlife, the forest that make the oxygen we breath, and the economy of many communities. Realizing that science was not enough to protect the marine environment from salmon farms Morton led a 500 km walk to the capital of British Columbia attended by 5000 people on the final day asking the government to get salmon farms off wild salmon migration routes.

Cohen Commission

In the fall of 2010 Morton led 100 people down the lower Fraser River to the Cohen Commission into the Decline of the Sockeye of the Fraser River, to ask the commission for full disclosure of government disease records on farm salmon. This was successful and caused Morton to go looking for three European farm salmon viruses.

In 2011, Morton was a witness and participant at the Cohen Commission into the Decline of the Sockeye of the Fraser River. When Morton and Simon Fraser University scientist, Dr. Richard Routledge discovered sequence of ISA virus in BC wild salmon, the entire commission reopened to hear evidence on this internationally reportable salmon virus from the influenza family. Morton produced [www.salmonconfidential.ca Salmon Confidential] on the government coverup with filmmaker Twyla Roscovich

Salmon Farm Licensing

NAFTA

In 2012, Morton joined the Kwikwasu’tinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association to submit a formal petition to the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), an environmental dispute body established under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

This petition challenged the Canadian government’s violations of its Fisheries Act in permitting more than 100 industrial salmon feedlots in BC to operate along wild salmon migration routes. This exposed BC’s ecologically, socially and economically valuable salmon runs to epidemics of disease, parasites, toxic chemicals and concentrated waste. The petition also documents the proliferation of industrial aquaculture and its impacts on British Columbia ecosystems that support wild salmon.

In December 2014, the council voted against an investigation into the accusation, Canada argued that a lawsuit regarding salmon farms was in progress, though the CEC staff and the United States concluded that the lawsuit was not related to the accusation in the petition. Ultimately the US voted in favour of a review of how Canada is managing salmon farms, but Canada and Mexico voted against and so the review was vetoed.

Petitions

Morton initiated two petitions, one called "Refuse to expand the salmon farming industry in BC", the other called "Divest Dirty Salmon". The first is to ask the Canadian government to stop allowing the expansion of salmon farms in British Columbia. The second is the ask Norwegian government to divest from salmon farming.

Lawsuits

In May 2013, Ecojustice lawyers, on behalf of Alexandra Morton, filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and Marine Harvest Canada Inc. The lawsuit was filed after learning that fish later confirmed to be infected with the piscine reovirus (PRV) had been transferred into an open-pen fish farm operated by Marine Harvest in Shelter Bay, BC.[10] On May 6, 2015 the Court sided with Morton and struck down aquaculture licence conditions that allowed private companies to transfer fish infected with viruses to open-pen farms in the ocean.[11]

Awards

A complete list of Morton's awards is available at Salmonaresacred.org.

Publications

Books

Children's books

See also

References

  1. ↑ Morton, Alexandra (2002). Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-44288-1.
  2. ↑ Woodleighhubbard.com
  3. ↑ New York Times - Scientist at work: Alexandra Morton
  4. ↑ Alexandra's story/
  5. ↑ Salmoncoast.org
  6. ↑ Alexandra Morton, 2010 Women of Discovery Sea Award
  7. ↑ Raincoast Research Society
  8. ↑ Whole-genome analysis of piscine reovirus (PRV) shows PRV represents a new genus in family Reoviridae and its genome segment S1 sequences group it into two separate sub-genotypes
  9. ↑ Pacific Salmon Carcasses: Essential Contributions of Nutrients and Energy for Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems
  10. ↑ Ecojustice. Wilderness & Wildlife. Victory for Wild Salmon as Federal Court Strikes down Aquaculture Licence Conditions. Ecojustice Canada, 7 May 2015. <http://www.ecojustice.ca/pressrelease/victory-for-wild-salmon-as-federal-court-strikes-down-aquaculture-licence-conditions/>.
  11. ↑ ALEXANDRA MORTON v. MINISTER OF FISHERIES AND OCEANS and MARINE HARVEST CANADA INC. Federal Court. 6 May 2015. Ecojustice Canada, 7 May 2015. Web. <http://www.ecojustice.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/T-789-13-Judgment-and-Reasons.pdf>.

External links

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