Erin launched the Pacific white-sided dolphin ecology program in 2008 in the Broughton Archipelago to advance our understanding of the importance of Pacific white-sided dolphins to the greater ecosystem and inform their conservation.
Although the species is charismatic, acrobatic, and impossible to ignore, their conservation status has not been assessed since 1990. Even then, there was no information on population size or trends, or threats to recovery.
We knew only that high-seas fisheries for squid and salmon killed hundreds of thousands of these dolphins in the 1980s and 1990s. Our science is collecting the data needed to evaluate whether the population is healthy or in trouble.