Raincoast Research Society

Raincoast Research was founded in 1981 (under the name Lore Quest) to conduct year-round research on the acoustics of the orca of the British Columbia coast. Over the years the mandate of this society has broadened. Initially, Raincoast Research focused only on the orca, documenting passage of every whale through the area. Conservation was not an obvious concern when the work commenced in 1984 in a remote archipelago between Kingcome and Knight Inlets called the Broughton Archipelago. Whales were abundant, salmon plentiful and the local community of floating homes (Echo Bay) thriving. Then the work expanded to include documentation of the return of the Pacific white-sided dolphin to this area after an absence of over 70 years. This exciting research included creation of the first photo-catalog of over 900 individual dolphins to facilitate understanding of their social system and use of the area.