MERS provides free webinars that are aimed at being highly engaging and entertaining while having the strong potential to reduce threats to marine life and boaters. A very high priority is to update boaters on the amended Marine Mammal Regulations (federal law) and to also to share our research on Humpback Whales and discuss how to reduce the risk of collision and what to do in case an entanglement is witnessed. The increase in the number of Humpbacks off the coast of British Columbia is so fortunate but necessitates increased awareness from boaters because Humpbacks behave so differently than the whale species boaters are more accustomed to i.e. Orca.
There are 3 options for MERS webinars:
- Join a scheduled webinar. See calendar below. Click on an event for further information and/or registration.
- Access one of our pre-recorded webinars. See presentation descriptions below for available recorded webinars.
- For the recording of our "Nudibranchs & Other Sensational Sea Slugs of British Columbia" webinar for students, please click here.
- For the "Return of Giants" video about Humpback Whales, our research, and how to reduce threats, click here.
- For the "Boaters and Marine Mammals" video, click here.
- For the video from one of our Workshops on Ethical Advertising and Social Sharing Practices, in which we partnered with the North Island Marine Mammal Stewardship Association (NIMMSA) and Tourism Vancouver Island, please see this link.
- For the recording of our March 11th, 2023 webinar "All Together Now - Collaborations to reduce threats to Humpbacks, click here.
- For the video on "Basking Sharks - who we were, what we did, where to from here?", click here.
- Request a presentation or webinar. Please do so by filling in the form at this link.
Presentation Descriptions:
Who are the whales? What do they eat? How to reduce noise, entanglement and collision?
The following MERS Research Associates and Collaborators shared overviews of their projects to help answer these questions.
- Tasli Shaw (Humpbacks of the Salish Sea) - Humpbacks of the Salish Sea - Investigating who the whales are, their population trends, site fidelity, and behaviour.
- Ashley Hoyland and Mark Sawyer (Humpbacks of Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds) - The Humpbacks of Southwest Vancouver Island - community effort to catalogue Humpbacks and why it matters.
- Ali Gladwell (University of Victoria) - Too close for comfort? Boater behaviour around marine mammals in the Johnstone Strait area: research to help inform boater education.
- Joan Moreaux (University of British Columbia)- The diet of individual Humpback Whales and why it matters to their conservation.
- Gary Sutton (Ocean Wise) and Emily Cowie (MERS) - Studying scars - aerial photographs to help determine rates of collision and entanglement in Humpback Whales. Ocean Wise Marine Mammal Research Program
Hosts and technical support: Christie McMIllan, Jackie Hildering and Marieke Knierim, MERS.
Supplemental educational materials available here.
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click here and sign up for MERS Presentation Email Alerts.
Are you interested in our Marine Mammal Naturalist Course?
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