Alexandra Bryant Hubbard Morton (born 13 July 1957) is an American and Canadian marine biologist best known for her 30-year study of wild

killer whale The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopolit ...

s in the

Broughton Archipelago Broughton Archipelago is a group of islands located at the eastern end of Queen Charlotte Strait in Mount Waddington Regional District, British Columbia. The archipelago is the traditional territory of the Musgamagw Dzawada'enuxw, Namgis, Ma ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. Since the 1990s, her work has shifted toward the study of the impact of

salmon farming The aquaculture of salmonids is the farming and harvesting of salmonid fish under controlled conditions for both commercial and recreational purposes. Salmonids (particularly salmon and rainbow trout), along with carp and tilapia, are the three ...

on Canadian wild salmon.

Early life and education

Alexandra Bryant Hubbard was born on July 13, 1957, in

Sharon, Connecticut Sharon is a New England town, town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States, in the northwest corner of the state. At the time of the United States 2020 Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population ...

. In her memoir, ''Listening to Whales,'' she said of her birthplace, "I can't imagine a more whaleless environment." Her father was an artist and her mother was writer

Barbara Marx Hubbard Barbara Marx Hubbard (born Barbara Marx; December 22, 1929 – April 10, 2019), American futurist, author, and public speaker. She is credited with The Wheel of Co-Creation 2.0 and concepts of "The Synergy Engine" and the "birthing" of humanity. ...

. Her maternal grandfather was toy maker

Louis Marx Louis Marx (August 11, 1896 – February 5, 1982) was an American toy maker and businessman whose company, Louis Marx and Company, was the largest toy company in the world in the 1950s. He was described by some as an experienced businessman with t ...

. Hubbard said that her passion for animals came from the time when she would explore the woods with her brother. In 1977, Morton started working with psychonaut

John C. Lilly John Cunningham Lilly (January 6, 1915 – September 30, 2001)John C. Lilly
at

as a volunteer in the Human/Dolphin Society. She catalogued 2,000 audio recordings of

bottlenose dolphin The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

s. She then graduated with a diploma from the

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

Study of captive orcas

While in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, Morton studied the communications of dolphins at

Marineland of the Pacific Marineland of the Pacific was a public oceanarium and tourist attraction located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula coast in Los Angeles County, California. Architect William Pereira designed the main structure. It was also known as Hanna-Barbera's ...

Palos Verdes The Palos Verdes Peninsula () is a peninsular subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located within southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is often called simply "Palos Verdes", and is made up of a group of cities in the Palos ...

. When she realized there were too many individuals in the tanks and that

bottlenose dolphins The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

were too quick to record their behaviour, Morton decided to shift her study towards Marineland's pair of killer whales, Orky and Corky, whom she had previously called "boring" because they spent long periods of time floating at the surface 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 acquired new language. However, the calf died and none of Corky's other babies survived more than 45 days. Following the passing of each of the calves Morton recorded from Corky a behaviour that closely resembled mourning. The young mother lay on the bottom of the tank repeating the same calls 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

Michael Bigg Michael Andrew Bigg (December 22, 1939 – October 18, 1990) was an English-born Canadians, Canadian marine biologist who is recognized as the founder of modern research on killer whales. With his colleagues, he developed new techniques for study ...

who told her Corky and Orky had come from

A5 Pod A5 Pod is a name given to a group of orcas (''Orcinus orca'') found off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the northern resident orcas population—a name given to the fish-eating orcas found in coastal waters ranging from mid-V ...

in northwestern British Columbia. He knew this from photographs of their capture as he could see the terrified young Corky pressed against the side of her mother. Dr. Bigg had photos of Corky's mother and her sisters and he knew they visited Johnstone Strait every summer near

Alert Bay Alert Bay is a village on Cormorant Island, near the town of Port McNeill on northeast Vancouver Island, in the Regional District of Mount Waddington, British Columbia, Canada. Demographics In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statist ...

, British Columbia. Morton spent her summer there and found A5 pod as well as other killer whale families. The next summer, she returned to British Columbia and met Robin Morton. Alexandra Morton then permanently shifted her study to wild killer whales. Morton and her husband moved onto a boat so that they could easily follow whales. To support their work, Morton and her husband rented out their boat for tourists and researchers. In 1984, while following the A12 matriline in Northeastern

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

, Morton came across the village of

Echo Bay, British Columbia Echo Bay is an unincorporated settlement located on the west side of Gilford Island Gilford Island is an island in British Columbia, Canada, between Tribune Channel and Knight Inlet. It has an area of . Turnour Island is to its south, acr ...

, in the

. She and her husband decided to settle there to pursue their study of wild killer whales.

Killer whale research

Photo-identification

In 1973, Michael Bigg developed a pioneering

photo identification Photo identification or photo ID is an identity document that includes a photograph of the holder, usually only their face. The most commonly accepted forms of photo ID are those issued by government authorities, such as driver's licenses, ident ...

system consisting of photographing the dorsal fin and saddle patch of each killer whale encountered in Pacific Northwest waters. 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 killer whales

For many years, only resident killer whales were intensely studied, as their predictable behaviour and highly stable social structure enabled researchers to follow them easily over a whole summer. Transients, however, have erratic route patterns which make them difficult to study. However, the Broughton Archipelago where Morton 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 findings 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 while 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 used to hide behind her boat to avoid being detected by potential prey. In 1987, Morton expanded her study to

pacific white-sided dolphin The Pacific white-sided dolphin (''Lagenorhynchus obliquidens''), also known as the hookfin porpoise, is an active dolphin found in the cool or temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy The Pacific white-sided dolphin was named by Sm ...

s which had come back to the archipelago three years prior. In 2010 she won the Women of Discovery Sea Award.

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". 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.

Salmon research and activism

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 contained Atlantic salmon. Since then, the salmon farming industry has grown, notably in the Broughton Archipelago. In the mid-2000s corporate giant

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

bought Cermaq, a company operating 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 in the years following 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. The booklet explores the issues of

sea lice Sea lice (singular: sea louse) are copepods (small crustaceans) of the family Caligidae within the order Siphonostomatoida. They are marine ectoparasites (external parasites) that feed on the mucus, epidermal tissue, and blood of host fish. Th ...

, impacts on lobster fisheries, challenges to bio-security, salmon viruses, exotic species, and the local economy. Director Twyla Roscovich's film of the same name and topic, Salmon Confidential, won the Best Canadian Environmental Documentary Award at the 2013 Vancouver International Film Festival,. The film also had 1,517,446 views by May 8, 3013 on You Tube. It was also licensed by The Green Channel in 2018 In the spring of 2010, Morton helped found the social movement Salmon Are Sacred to raise awareness of the value of salmon to society. In Dec 2020, Morton's research contributed to a decision by Canada's federal fisheries and oceans department to phase out all salmon farms in the narrow passages between Vancouver Island and the mainland, as their diseases were found to be decimating the native wild Pacific salmon with sea lice and viruses.

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 near Port Hardy, British Columbia. 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.

Electoral politics

Morton ran as a candidate of the

Green Party of British Columbia The Green Party of British Columbia, or simply the BC Greens, is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1983 and is based in Victoria. The party won its first seat in the Legislative Assembly of British Colu ...

in the Oct 24, 2020 provincial general election, coming in third, with 19.26% of the vote.

Publications

Books

*1998 "Heart of the Raincoast." (with Billy Proctor). Horsdal and Schubart, Victoria. *2002 *2004 *2021 "Not on My Watch: How a Renegade Whale Biologist Took on Governments and Industry to Save Wild Salmon." Random House Canada.

Children's books

*1991 "Siwiti: A Whale's Story." Orca Books, Victoria. *1993 "In the Company of Whales, from the Diary of a Whale Watcher." Orca Books Victoria.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, Alexandra 1957 births Living people 20th-century American biologists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century Canadian biologists 20th-century Canadian women scientists 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century Canadian biologists 21st-century Canadian women scientists American marine biologists American University alumni American women biologists Canadian environmentalists Canadian marine biologists Canadian women biologists Canadian women environmentalists Orca researchers People from Lakeville, Connecticut Scientists from British Columbia Biologists from Connecticut