Alexandra Bryant Morton

Where my sister Alexandra Morton lives, there are no roads, cars, movie theaters, hospitals, malls, or manicurists, and the only modes of transportation are boats and float planes. The year-round population of Simoom Sound, in the Broughton Archipelago of Canada, is forty. Her lovely home, which she built with the help of her community, is nestled into sheer rock on the side of a cliff. From her doorstep, one is treated to a sumptuous panorama of the most pristine natural beauty imaginable: seals, ravens, wolves, blue herons, Pacific white-sided dolphins, harbor porpoises, raccoons, beaver, black bears, cougars, black-tailed deer, river otters Steller' s sea lions, harbor seals, humming birds, Steller jays, humpback whales, Minke whales, orcas, and the occasional sea otter.

In the beginning of her study of sea mammals, Morton focused on the bottle-nose dolphins, under the direction of Dr. John Lilly, a pioneer in the field. Lilly became a mentor and friend to Alexandra, allowing her access to his vast files on dolphin behavior; she was the only person to whom he ever granted this honor. Soon she became interested in orcas (which are believed to have a higher intelligence than dolphins). She studied them in captivity, attempting to decode their language.

After logging hundreds of hours observing whale behavior in captivity through photographs and tape recordings, she realized her next step was to study them in their natural habitat. She spent the summer of 1979 in Canada studying whales in the wild. The next summer, she met underwater photographer Robin Morton, a long, tall, cool sip of water with whom she fell madly, wildly, deeply in love.

Alexandra and Robin

Alexandra and Robin were married the next year. They soon moved to their boat, the Blue Fjord where they awaited the arrrival of their son, Jarret. It was a happy time of new beginnings a time spent together as a family, Alexandra and Robin worked together, she recording...while Robin—a known photographer in his field—made a photo documentary... To support their work they crewed and rented the Blue Fjord out to tourists for sightseeing and for taking advantage of the lush salmon fishing available in the summer months.

In 1986, Robin tragically drowned while filming whales underwater; Alexandra and Jarret were with him at the time of the accident, photographing and recording whales in a zodiac above water. The shock and total devastation to this young mother is indescribable. When asked, "how did you get up out of bed after your husband's death?" she answers, "The love of life, curiosity, science, and mothering."

	Robin

Faced with this tragedy, Alexandra refused to give up. Although she mourns her husband's loss to this day, she's had the great inner courage to keep going, to be able to see the wonder and beauty in this world, and to continue to learn about it. Her passion for life has become only stronger over time. (Jarret has followed in his mother's footsteps, reaching his dream of becoming a rocket scientist for NASA at age the of 22. Jarret was raised to "quote follow his dreams", and from the remote wilds of Canada on a tiny island with a one-room school house, in a community of forty people, he did exactly that; in the words of Alexandra, "he aimed high and hit a bulls' eye.")

As she continued her research on whales, she noticed that in 1993 they were rapidly disappearing, in tandem with the general deterioration of the marine environment in her area. She traced this environmental destruction to the massive fish farms dotting the coast. She began a 16 year quest to understand, then fight against, the environmental devastation caused by these corporate farms.

This has not been an easy path to travel. During the years that Alexandra has been a champion for this cause, she's had to forgo many job opportunities and was forced to work and live on a shoe-string budget so that she could spend all her time amassing the requisite information required.

It's no small wonder that Alexandra Morton is admired and respected by many in her area and abroad. Some of her nicknames include: "The Conscience of the Coast," "The Goodall of Whales," "Erin Brokovich," and "Alex of the Inlets."

However, not all responses to her work have been positive. Over the years, she has been treated with callous disregard by the elements of her community who feel threatened by her work. She has been publicly humiliated over the VHF radio  the primary form of communication for a large part of the community and surrounding areas. She has been called every name men use to degrade women. One of her dogs was shot by a disgruntled neighbor, and she's been lambasted by people who resent her presence as a woman and an American "causing all this trouble". Still, Alexandra's sheer tenacity to unearth the truth about this situation has impressed even some of her fiercest defectors.

	Alexandra and Jarret

In the face of this bullying and meanness she kept her focus by remembering why she was doing this work, why she was willing to give up her "beloved whale research and step into the thankless, unfamiliar shoes of a burr in the boot of any politician striving to sell out life for a quick buck":

"Obviously there is more at stake here than whales and wilderness. I get a deep pang of regret thinking my children could live in a world no longer suitable for human life: too much radiation from the sun, poisoned air and water and food glazed with a cocktail of chemicals so toxic no life would touch it but us. For whatever reason I was brought here at this particular time in history, and however unlikely a candidate I am for doing my part in taking a stand to turn this situation around, I've accepted the challenge."