The Oceans Initiative conducted research in 2011 on the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on whales and dolphins. They estimated that for every dead dolphin found on the beach, 50 to 250 dolphin deaths occurred at sea. The organization also studied plastic pollution in BC waters, mapped where trash and marine mammals overlap, and advocated for reducing plastic use and cleaning garbage patches. They launched a campaign to raise awareness about ocean noise and its impacts on whales and dolphins. Research was also conducted on Antarctic minke whales, killer whales and salmon populations.

1. Oceans Initiative Year in Review 2011 HAVE A HAPPY 2012!

2. Our highest-profile research this year brought together a team of 8 marine mammal scientists to explore the possible impacts of the Deepwater Horizon spill on whales and dolphins. The team found that, historically, every dead dolphin on the beach probably represented 50 to 250 deaths than went undetected at sea. DEEPWATER HORIZON SPILL

3. Dolphinpalooza It takes a village to photograph Pacific white-sided dolphins . Last April, we were all about dolphins. Using Aeroplan miles donated to our project, our friends Don Willson and Angela Smith took us out to photograph over 1000 dolphins at the head of (a very cold) Knight Inlet in April. We shot over 10,000 photographs in a week.

4. Blue Whales in Patagonia Blue whales are one of the wonders of the ocean and the icons of the Save the Whales movement. We were excited to publish a paper on the conservation status of Chilean blue whales . The science is exciting, because, paradoxically, it is harder to estimate abundance of rare species than common ones, and this exercise brought together field biologists and statisticians. We're thrilled that the journal chose our article for the cover, and isn't this an amazing shot by Tui De Roy ?

5. Ocean Garbage Plastic doesn't belong in the ocean. We estimated that there are tens of thousands of pieces of plastic floating in BC waters alone , and mapped where trash in the ocean and marine mammals were most likely to overlap . Our hope is that these garbage patches could be targeted for clean-up or marine mammal stranding response efforts. Or better yet, let's reduce ocean garbage by buying less plastic ( Go Seattle !) and reusing what we have.

8. Marine Protected Areas Human impacts on the ocean are pervasive and growing. How do you begin to set priorities about which habitats to protect? We had a terrific opportunity to work with colleagues on a report to map what we know about whale & dolphin distribution in the Pacific, and compare notes with colleagues at the International Marine Mammal Marine Protected Area Conference in Martinique.

9. Quiet Ocean Campaign We launched our Quiet Ocean Campaign to raise awareness about ocean noise and went to the International Quiet Ocean Experiment meeting in Paris to discuss the issues with the world’s experts. Sound is as important to whales and dolphins as vision is to us. We can keeping the ocean quiet by reducing shipping. Over 90% of our goods are shipped so buying local and buying less (check out Patagonia’s Common Threads Initiative ) helps the whales.