20 Facts About Alexandra Morton

Alexandra Bryant Hubbard Morton was born on 13 July 1957 and is an American and Canadian marine biologist best known for her 30-year study of wild killer whales in the Broughton Archipelago in British Columbia.

Alexandra Morton then graduated with a diploma from the American University.

When she realized there were too many individuals in the tanks and that bottlenose dolphins were too quick to record their behaviour, Alexandra 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.

Alexandra Morton observed the pair when the female gave birth to the first orca conceived in captivity.

Alexandra Morton was interested in studying how baby orcas acquired new language.

In 1979, Alexandra Morton contacted pioneering killer whale researcher Michael Bigg who told her Corky and Orky had come from A5 Pod in northwestern British Columbia.

Alexandra Morton knew this from photographs of their capture as he could see the terrified young Corky pressed against the side of her mother.

Alexandra Morton spent her summer there and found A5 pod as well as other killer whale families.

In 1984, while following the A12 matriline in Northeastern Vancouver Island, Alexandra Morton came across the village of Echo Bay, British Columbia, in the Broughton Archipelago.

Since arriving in the Broughton Archipelago, Alexandra Morton has been one of the main contributors to theses catalogues, providing ID photos of northern resident as well as of transient killer whales.

However, the Broughton Archipelago where Alexandra Morton lived was frequented by many transient groups and since the mid eighties, Alexandra Morton has been conducting the study of this little known community.

Alexandra Morton noted that transients, unlike residents, are mostly silent.

One transient Alexandra Morton knew well used to hide behind her boat to avoid being detected by potential prey.

In 1987, Alexandra Morton expanded her study to pacific white-sided dolphins which had come back to the archipelago three years prior.

In 2011, Alexandra Morton began the controversial work of tracking three European salmon farm virus in British Columbia, Canada, publishing in 2013 on the piscine reovirus.

Alexandra 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.

In Dec 2020, Alexandra 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.

Alexandra Morton initiated two petitions, one called "Refuse to expand the salmon farming industry in BC", the other called "Divest Dirty Salmon".

In May 2013, Ecojustice lawyers, on behalf of Alexandra Morton, filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Marine Harvest Canada Inc The lawsuit was filed after learning that fish later confirmed to be infected with the piscine reovirus 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 Alexandra Morton and struck down aquaculture licence conditions that allowed private companies to transfer fish infected with viruses to open-pen farms in the ocean.