SATURNA WHALE RESEARCH 2021

The ISZs were first set up in 2019 by Transport Canada in a bid to give the resident orcas sanctuary from excessive underwater noise and physical disturbances from commercial and recreational vessels. This year’s ISZ rules came into effect on June 1 and are applicable until next November 30.

Under this Government of Canada legislation, marine vessels and fishing are not allowed in the ISZs, although human-powered vessels such as kayaks, canoes or paddle boards are permitted to use a 20 metre transit corridor along the shoreline. Penalties for ISZ infractions may apply, the federal government says.

Last year’s research at East Point was done by SFU graduate student Lucy Quayle but this year Kaitlin and Azi will not only build on the data Quayle collected, they’ll also expand the research in a bid to broaden the knowledge base on the effectiveness of ISZs and how the orcas are responding to this unique offer of sanctuary.

And while the research work done by each of these two researchers has a great deal in common with the other’s field of inquiry, their backgrounds couldn’t be more different.

Up until about five months ago, Azi, 37, was living in her native Iran where she’d earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology while Kaitlin, 24, was born and raised in Regina then completed an undergraduate degree in environmental biology at McGill University in Montreal last year.

Both researchers readily admit doing this kind of work coincides nicely with their love of the outdoors as well as their concerns for the environment. They fully expect they’ll be involved in careers that encompass the eco-environment in some form.

And that love of the outdoors has made their time on Saturna an even greater experience since both are first-time visitors.

“I wasn’t even in Canada until a while ago but I already love this island and the people are so friendly,” says Azi. Kaitlin knew about the Gulf Islands but had never set foot on Saturna before. “I’m absolutely loving it here, it’s such a beautiful island,” she says.

Both also enjoy photography, which they utilize a great deal in their research, as well as hiking so for after-hours relaxation, they’re also getting to know Saturna on foot.

And both say they were attracted to SFU by its unique Ecological Restoration program which they describe as a process of taking a degraded or destroyed eco-system and putting it on a trajectory so that it can repair or restore itself.

Their work is being supervised by SFU’s Dr. Ruth Joy while the host on Saturna during their summer project is the Saturna Island Marine Research & Education Society (SIMRES). The data they’re gathering will be shared with both Transport Canada and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority-led Enhancing Cetacean Habitat and Observation (ECHO) program.

“I really wanted to know what kind of impact ships and boats are having on the whales and also wanted to carry on the excellent work done last year by Lucy Quayle,” Kaitlin says in explaining what attracted her to the SFU program. But with Azi now on board,we’re not only looking at vessels and underwater noise, we’re also looking at other variables such as tides, currents and ocean temperatures to expand the data base.”

Aside from monitoring whale movements — they study humpbacks as well as the orcas — the team also carefully monitors encroaching vessels in the ISZs.

And in this second major component of their research, they’re finding some surprising results. “On busy days when I’m seeing lots of vessels I’m also seeing infraction rates in the ISZ of 50 to 70 percent,” Kaitlin explains. “That’s pretty high.”

This preliminary result confirms similar data from Quayle’s research last summer, says SIMRES spokesperson Maureen Welton. “This is identifying a really important piece of information because Transport Canada originally thought most boats were following the ISZ rules.” The East Point research is also producing higher whale sighting numbers, especially for Humpbacks and Transient killer whales but lower numbers for Southern Resident killer whales, Welton adds. “By doing this research we’re finding out there are many more whales and recreational boats in the area and providing Transport Canada and other government departments with a proper baseline of accurate data for their decision-making.”