Although our work has taken lab members far afield to various locations, we focus most of our research efforts on the west coast of Vancouver Island. At that site we have long terms detailed studies of interaction between gray whales, zooplankton communities and other habitat elements. Community ecology dominates most of the current work, but in the past we have undertaken work to try and illuminate links to the upland geochemistry on one hand, and the social domain of recreational whale-watching on the other. We conduct extensive field research employing boat-based surveys, remote sensing and data collection techniques, and advanced sonar technology to collect information on marine creatures great and small, and combine these field data sets with cutting-edge Geographic Information System analysis. Graduate students form the core of the lab, focusing and leading research projects.
The Whale Research Lab is based in the geography department at the University of Victoria
You can contact us at:
Office: SS&M Building B113
email: whalelab@gmail.com