Spyhopper Marine Mammal Research Team (SMMRT)

The Spyhopper Marine Mammal Research Team is a dedicated group of researchers with training and expertise in cetacean and marine mammal monitoring. Team members have experience working on projects focussing on marine mammal distribution in the Salish Sea, the impacts of vessel noise to cetaceans, bioacoustics, and the degradation of critical marine habitat. The team is committed to advancing marine research and contributing to the conservation of marine mammals in the Southern Gulf Islands and beyond.

This team also has the role of data curation on Spyhopper. They work hard to validate detections, add extra detection information (individual identification, detection notes, etc.), and link detections together into encounters.

Saturna Island Marine Research & Education Society (SIMRES)

Saturna Island Marine Research & Education Society (SIMRES) protects marine life and ecosystems in the Salish Sea by supporting scientific research, citizen-led conservation and community education. The SIMRES vision is to advance research that drives meaningful, long-term changes to protect and enhance the habitat of whales, other native species, and their habitats in the Salish Sea.

SIMRES operates two hydrophones in Boundary Pass, at East Point and Monarch Head, in collaboration with the BC Hydrophone Network (BCHN). These hydrophones are deployed at a depth of 20 m and are cabled to shore. Acoustic detections and audio clips from these locations are uploaded to Spyhopper by SMMRT members.

These hydrophones are streamed live and can be accessed at simres.ca. In addition, AI detections of whales can be found on the interactive map at whalesound.ca.

Southern Gulf Island Whale Sighting Network (SGIWSN)

In early 2020, a group of citizen scientists from Saturna Island with a passion for whales, formed the Saturna Sighters Network. The group started a pilot program to opportunistically monitor the presence of whales around East Point. The network, now known as the Southern Gulf Island Whale Sighting Network (SGIWSN), has grown to include four Islands (Saturna, Pender, Mayne and Galiano) with over 80 contributing members. Observing whales from shore is an important aspect of the group and they promote land based whale watching. Read more about the SGIWSN here.

Ocean Wise

As one of the longest-standing and most successful citizen science programs in Canada, the Ocean Wise Sightings Network (OWSN) has gathered cetacean sighting reports from volunteer observers for over 22 years. Through community engagement, coastal residents and visitors are encouraged to contribute to conservation efforts and report their whale sightings. This data plays an integral role in various conservation projects concerning cetacean health and monitoring, and can be useful in identifying critical habitat, developing species-specific recovery strategies, and implementing regulations related to cetaceans and human activities. Individual sighting reports are also relayed in real-time to Ocean Wise's Whale Report Alert System (WRAS), a tool developed for authorized mariners onboard commercial vessels (e.g., ferries, tugs, and freighters) to alert them of the presence of whales nearby. The WRAS functions to provide advance warning to mariners to reduce their impacts on nearby cetaceans by slowing down, re-routing, or halting their vessel. You can learn more about the WRAS at oceans.org.