A lifetime studying and advocating for cetaceans: Interview with Paul Spong
Paul Spong’s life has been entwined with whales for nearly six decades. In the 1960s, Spong, who hails from Aotearoa New Zealand, moved to the U.S. to study physiological psychology at the Brain Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. Then, in 1967, he entered the world of cetaceans when the Vancouver Aquarium […]
Paul Spong, a New Zealander, has devoted his life to the study and advocacy of cetaceans, particularly orcas, for nearly six decades. His journey began in the 1960s when he moved to the United States to pursue physiological psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. It was in 1967 that Spong first encountered cetaceans while working with the Vancouver Aquarium in Canada.
They hired him to study the behavior of Skana, a wild orca captured from Puget Sound. Spong's experiments on Skana revealed her high intelligence and self-awareness, leading him to advocate for her release. Unfortunately, the aquarium did not renew his contract and Skana passed away in 1980.
Undeterred, Spong turned his focus to studying orcas in their natural habitat. In 1970, he set up a tent and hydrophone on Hanson Island, off the northeastern coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, with the intention of observing the local whales during the Northern Hemisphere summer. However, his project far surpassed the initial one-season plan, and by the late 1970s, Spong had established a permanent research facility on Hanson Island, now known as OrcaLab.
Spong and his wife, fellow whale researcher Helena Symonds, serve as co-directors of this organization. They have adopted a hands-off approach, observing the orcas using land-based hydrophones and cameras, rather than tracking them.
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