Meet the Directors of the JSKWICS

Marie Fournier

Marie Fournier currently works with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in the acoustics program monitoring vessel noise around the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. She previously worked with Cetus Research & Conservation Society for 15 years managing the Robson Bight Warden program on-site from the Cracroft Island camp and its Eagle Eye observation station researching Northern Resident killer whales. This is where she was introduced and fell in love with the Whale Interpretive Centre.

Marie has spent many years working with cetaceans in a variety of projects around the world, including: the Hakai Institute conducting sea otter surveys and foraging observations, many years care-taking Orcalab (Pacific Orca Society), a land-based research station on Hanson Island that monitors cetaceans acoustically and visually as well as with Marine Education & Research Society focusing on large whale disentanglements, to name a few.

Marie currently resides in North Saanich with her husband, 2 children and dog, Ga̱labidu’ (aka ‘little grizzly bear’ in the Kwak̓wala language as she is from Alert Bay 😊).