Bluefin Tuna with Dr. Michael Stokesbury

February 2026

Amphitrite Lighthouse Educational Centre - Wild Pacific Trail Society
February 01 - March 31
Daily Interpretive topics can be explored from the new Interpretive Centre overlooking the iconic Amphitrite Lighthouse. Learn about the Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet, and the array of ecosystems on the Pacific Rim!

Supporting Outdoor Risky Play Workshop — Supporting Outdoor Risky Play - Free Workshop
February 17
The Clayoquot Biosphere Trust is hosting Rachel Ramsden from the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, an Outdoor Play Specialist, for an in-person interactive workshop.

Arctic Turns with Dr. Mark Mallory Raincoast Education Society Speaker Series — Arctic Terns with Dr. Mark Mallory - Incredible Journeys - RES Speaker Series
February 19
Raincoast Education Society is excited to host their 2026 Speaker Series, Incredible Journeys, featuring guest speakers exploring the science behind some of the planet’s most remarkable migrations.

Arctic Terns with Dr. Mark Mallory - Incredible Journeys - RES Speaker Series

Raincoast Education Society is excited to host their 2026 Speaker Series, Incredible Journeys, featuring guest speakers exploring the science behind some of the planet’s most remarkable migrations.

Register for this FREE online session HERE.

Breeding biology and annual movements of Arctic Terns from Nunavut, Canada

Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) are a small seabird with a circumpolar distribution. Scientists and northern Indigenous Peoples have reported declines in numbers of Arctic terns in the 21st Century, but in Canada, very little was known about their breeding or movements. To that end, Dr. Mallory's team undertook a multiyear study of tern breeding, diet, and movement from a colony at Nasaruvaalik Island in the high Arctic. In this presentation, he will summarize some of what we found about the challenges they face during nesting, the incredible information they documented on their year-round movements, and how these data continue to give us benefits in considering issues like marine protection in Canada and on the open oceans.

About the speaker: Dr. Mark Mallory is a Canada Research Chair at Acadia University, Nova Scotia, where he studies effects of climate change, pollution, and human activity on coastal environments (especially seabirds) in the Canadian Maritimes and Arctic.

He has worked in Nunavut for 25 years, and lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut from 1999-2011. Although focused on birds in Canada’s high Arctic, Mark’s collaborations stretch from Alaska to Norway, and he has extensive work underway in Labrador and Nova Scotia.

He has written > 400 scientific papers, as well as the book Common Birds of Nunavut, and has led >25 Arctic research expeditions. His research led to the creation of Akpait and Qaqulluit National Wildlife Areas on eastern Baffin Island, and the uplisting of ivory gulls to Endangered status.

Mark has been appointed to two Arctic Council international expert groups, the College of the Royal Society of Canada, was made a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and was awarded a Fulbright Canada Chair in Arctic Studies at the University of Washington. Mostly, though, he just likes watching birds.

Photo Credits: Raincoast Education Society

Bluefin Tuna with Dr. Michael Stokesbury - Incredible Journeys - RES Speaker Series

Raincoast Education Society is excited to host their 2026 Speaker Series, Incredible Journeys, featuring guest speakers exploring the science behind some of the planet’s most remarkable migrations.

Register for this FREE online session HERE.

The Incredible Migrations of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna: the Olympic Athletes of the Sea

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna are the largest members of the family Scombridae, so, they are really large mackerel. They grow to more than 650 kg in weight, and over 395 cm (12 feet) long. Canadian fish that are caught commercially are mostly exported to Japan for the sashimi market. Because of their great size, strength, and speed, Atlantic Bluefin Tuna are also a prized sport fish and catch and release fisheries are active in several countries including Canada. Atlantic Bluefin Tuna are managed internationally by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), centred in Spain with 55 member countries. There are two main populations in the Atlantic, a larger resilient population that spawns mostly in the Mediterranean Sea, and a smaller less resilient population that spawns mostly in the Gulf of Mexico. Understanding the mixing, distribution, and migration ecology of these populations while at sea is central to informing proper sustainable management regimes from these fish. In this talk I will report on 20 years of electronic tagging of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, to determine migration ecology, stock structure and to improve management.

About the speaker: Dr. Michael Stokesbury is the Director of the Acadia Centre for Estuarine Research (ACER) at Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Dr. Stokesbury has over 30 years of experience tracking fishes using electronic tagging technology. His lab performs applied fisheries research focused on mitigating the impacts of industry on fish stocks.

Photo Credits: Raincoast Education Society

March 2026

Caribou Migrations with Dr. Conor Mallory - Incredible Journeys - RES Speaker Series

Raincoast Education Society is excited to host their 2026 Speaker Series, Incredible Journeys, featuring guest speakers exploring the science behind some of the planet’s most remarkable migrations.

Register for this FREE online session HERE.

Changing Paths: Climate Impacts on Caribou Migration and Habitat Connectivity

The ability of species to adapt to the shifting environmental conditions associated with climate change will be a key determinant of their persistence in the coming decades. This is a challenge already faced by species in the Arctic, where rapid environmental change is well underway. Caribou and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) play a key role in Arctic ecosystems and provide irreplaceable socioeconomic value to many northern peoples. Recent decades have seen declines in many Rangifer populations, and there is strong concern that climate change is threatening the viability of this iconic Arctic species. I will discuss the migratory and calving behaviour responses of barren-ground caribou in the Qamanirjuaq herd to earlier springs, and how changing snow cover on the late winter and migratory ranges affects migratory behaviour. I will also discuss how we can model the effects of sea-ice loss on habitat connectivity for Peary caribou (R. t. pearyi), a subspecies that is widely dispersed across the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and relies on sea ice to move seasonally between island habitats.

About the speaker: Dr. Conor Mallory currently works at Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and is focused on research and political advocacy to address the complex socioeconomic challenges and inequities that exist across Inuit Nunangat. During his time at ITK, he has worked on implementation of the Qanuippitaa? National Inuit Health Survey, the National Inuit Strategy on Research and the development of the National Inuit Data Strategy. He grew up in Nunavut and worked there in environmental policy and wildlife research before joining ITK. Conor received his PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Alberta for his research on barren-ground caribou movement and responses to climate change in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Photo Credits: Raincoast Education Society

Small Town Big Picture: Tofino - Ambassador Program
March 11
This three-hour orientation session delivers the “big picture” of living in Tofino.

Marine Mammal Research Days West Coast NEST — 2026 Pacific Rim Whale Festival
March 14 - 21
Join the Pacific Rim Whale Festival, an annual event celebrating the return of Pacific Grey Whales to the West coast of Vancouver Island on their Northern migration route!

Gray Whales with Dr. Aimée Lang Raincoast Education Society Speaker Series — Gray Whales with Dr. Aimée Lang - Incredible Journeys - RES Speaker Series
March 19
Raincoast Education Society is excited to host their 2026 Speaker Series, Incredible Journeys, featuring guest speakers exploring the science behind some of the planet’s most remarkable migrations.

April 2026

Monarch Butterfly Migrations with Dr. Gregory Mitchell - Incredible Journeys - RES Speaker Series

Raincoast Education Society is excited to host their 2026 Speaker Series, Incredible Journeys, featuring guest speakers exploring the science behind some of the planet’s most remarkable migrations.

Register for this FREE online session HERE.

Detailed tracking of the eastern migratory monarch butterfly between Canada and Mexico using solar Bluetooth transmitters.

The eastern migratory monarch butterfly has long-captured the hearts and imaginations of Canadians with its spectacular fall migration spanning > 4000 km between its summer breeding grounds in southern Canada to its wintering grounds in central Mexico and then its multi-generational migration back in the spring. While sticker tagging programs have provided us with a wealth of information about the relative proportions of monarchs arriving in Mexico from different regions of North America, we have little information on the exact migration routes they take given the challenge of following individual monarchs. This in turn has prevented us from understanding how weather conditions experienced en route affects migration success. We expect weather conditions to have a large impact on migration success because head and tail winds can easily double or half energy expenditure during flight, respectively, and because monarchs are ectotherms, their metabolism is strongly influenced by ambient temperature. Here we used 0.06 g solar Bluetooth transmitters to track monarch butterfly migration in unprecedented detail using passively crowed-sourced detections of tagged monarchs from people’s cell phones. Monarchs were strongly affected by the wind conditions they experienced, with strong winds blowing to the north stalling their migration. Heavy rains and high temperatures also slowed their progress towards the wintering grounds. With this data it will now be possible to investigate if and how changing weather patterns associated with climate change affects the number of eastern migratory monarchs reaching the wintering grounds in Mexico.

About our speaker: Dr. Mitchell is a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. His research program is focused on the conservation of migratory birds and species at risk in Canada in support of the Migratory Bird Convention Act and the Species at Risk Act. He also sits as Canada’s federal representative on the Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership, which coordinates shared research priorities and projects across Canada, the US, and Mexico, and is also a member of the federal Monarch Butterfly Recovery Team.

Photo Credits: Raincoast Education Society