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Fishers' involvement is crucial. Image: WDC/JTF

When porpoises and people overlap

We're funding a project in Hong Kong that's working with fishing communities to help save...

Mindful conservation – why we need a new respect for nature

'We should look at whales and dolphins as the indigenous people of the seas -...
A dolphin called Arnie with a shell

Dolphins catch fish using giant shell tools

In Shark Bay, Australia, two groups of dolphins have figured out how to use tools...
Common dolphins at surface

Did you know that dolphins have unique personalities?

We all have personalities, and between the work Christmas party and your family get-together, perhaps...
Leaping harbour porpoise

The power of harbour porpoise poo

We know we need to save the whale to save the world. Now we are...
Holly. Image: Miray Campbell

Meet Holly, she’s an incredible orca leader

Let me tell you the story of an awe-inspiring orca with a fascinating family story...
Humpback whale. Image: Christopher Swann

A story about whales and humans

As well as working for WDC, I write books for young people. Stories; about the...
Risso's dolphin at surface

My lucky number – 13 years studying amazing Risso’s dolphins

Everything we learn about the Risso's dolphins off the coast of Scotland amazes us and...

Springer has a calf!

In the summer of 2007, I was fortunate enough to travel to British Columbia and the waters north of Vancouver Island where the Northern Resident population of orcas spend their summers. One day, out on the water, I saw Springer or A-73, a young female orca whose story I knew pretty well.

Springer was found alone in 2002 in Puget Sound, many miles from home, after her mother died and she became separated from her pod. From her vocalisations, Helena Symonds at Orcalab, a WDC funded project and home to WDC’s Adopt an Orca programme, was able to identify her family among the Northern Residents. So began a project to rehabilitate her back to good health and return her to her home waters and an orca pod she would be accepted into. The project to save Springer was thankfully successful and her progress has been monitored as her pod returns to the waters around Vancouver Island each year. This year, now aged 13, Springer has been seen with her first calf. We are very excited at this news and wish Springer and her pod every success with their new family member. Another great chapter in the successful return of Springer to her home waters.