Oceanographic Environmental Research Society (OERS)

Are you looking for some fun activities to do with you little ones during these times? Or perhaps you are looking for some new colouring material? Well you are in luck, OERS has a variety of fun activity pages for children (and adults too!) to choose from. In the series illustrated by Nicole Clough entitled " Fun with Sophie the Sea Otter and Ricky the River Otter", you can learn about these otter species. To download the FREE! pdf copy of the activity booklet, click on the... following link: https://www.otter.org//chi/OERS_Otter_Activity_Booklet.pdf. We'd like to thank the International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) for featuring our booklet on their web page. To see more educational material about otters from the IOSF, click on the link: https://www.otter.org//MediaAndResources_Resources_ForChil Show us your work! After you are done colouring your page, send us a copy of your lovely art and we will feature you on the OERS Facebook page. How about we start this colouring adventure with an example from page 3 of Sophie relaxing on her mommy's belly floating in the ocean. Looking forward to your entries and stay safe!

Meredith Foley has published a Letter to the Editor about her experiences participating in 2 North Atlantic Right Whale necropsies in 2019 while she was employed with OERS as a summer student. You can read more about her experiences in the latest issue of JMATE: http://oers.ca/journal/volume11/issue1/letterEditor.pdf We are very pleased that OERS is able to provide these valuable opportunities and perhaps life-altering experiences to students early in their career formative years.

A wonderful sunset along St. Mary's Bay, Nova Scotia at Belliveau's Cove as the tide ebbs out this chilly January evening. Thanks to OERS biologist and photographer Nesime Askin for sharing this capture with us.

On June 7, 2019 an OERS team was deployed to participate in the necropsy of a North Atlantic Right Whale, identified as Wolverine. The necropsy was organized by various Canadian agencies who collaborated together to determine the cause of death of this endangered cetacean: the Marine Animal Response Society (MARS), the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC), Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC), Faculté de médecine vétérinaire ... UdeM, and Parks Canada. We would like to thank all these agencies and their volunteers for all the hard work they did during this necropsy to determine Wolverine’s cause of death. Before the necropsy began, a blessing ceremony was performed by Elder Noel Milliea and Patrick Goguen of the Mi’kmaq community which was an emotional tribute to the life of this endangered right whale who lived for only 9 years on our blue planet. A special thank-you to Meredith Foley, the 2019 OERS Summer Studentship recipient, for helping OERS collect valuable research samples.