"The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves." Jane Goodall
Profiles of Project Team
We are adventurous hiking partners who love being in nature and enjoy spending time at the oceans. We are excited to bring to you this unique project concept to help educate, inspire and empower people to learn about whales, interconnected species, organisms, climate change and humanity. Our team members include:
Maria Lisa Polegatto
Maria Lisa Polegatto is a Cape Breton University (CBU) Bachelor of Arts Community Studies Degree graduate (2019) from Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, a continuing part time student while working full time as a Paralegal after graduating previously from the CBU Paralegal program and a Certified National Geographic Educator. She and her dog, Tilly, visit the ocean to spend time as citizen scientists to relax in the freedom of nature and bask in its miraculously beauty.
Inspiration for this project is a result of her:
- growing up along the Mira River spending time canoeing and kayaking every evening at sunset or moonlight along the shoreline
- spending time at the ocean hearing the roar of the ocean's waves
- seeing a whale fall on a beach at Crooked Lake Road, Framboise, Nova Scotia, as a child
- her Great Grandfather, Aime "Pepe" Boudreau, born in 1878, being a mackerel fisherman in Poulamon, Nova Scotia
- a childhood dream of being a marine biologist so she writes about nature and animals and visits the ocean often with her dogs as citizen scientists
- spending time hiking in nature and at the oceans with her dog
- volunteering for the Canadian Sea Turtle Beach Patrol as a sea turtle beach patroller
- volunteering for Marine Animal Response Society
- her love of all species and nature
- her love of researching and writing
- enjoying a project she was a co-researcher of: Senior Dogs Are Pawsitively Good Citizens
- her love of taking and sharing pictures for her Website
- she is a Certified National Geographic Educator
- her love of writing poetry: I Am Whale (new in 2021)
- being an author, including a book of this research (new in 2023)
Tilly Maisy Whiskey Polegatto
Tilly Maisy Whiskey Polegatto is a 4 year Labrador Retriever/German Shepherd/Samoyed Husky/Cocker Spaniel/American Eskimo/Collie/Golden Retriever/Poodle mix who acts as a citizen scientist at the oceans in Nova Scotia, Canada, who has boundless energy, exceptional sniffing ability, and loves outside adventures. Tilly can be found leaping over seaweed mountains, testing the ocean temperatures year round and loves being a beach patroller for Canadian Sea Turtle Network (CSTN) and Marine Animal Response Society with Maria Lisa Polegatto.
Note: Dogs are not allowed around live marine mammals so Tilly has not approached any. Also, since marine mammals may have diseases that can affect dogs and humans, both need to stay back from marine mammals.
Together we have found or visited around Cape Breton Island species, including:
- An injured Piping Plover we took to the Vet for rescue
- A Great Egret that blew off course in a wind storm
- Bald Eagles (adult and eaglets)
- Blue Herons
- Seals (live and deceased)
- Sunfish after storm (deceased)
- Dolphin (deceased), Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
- Blue Whale (deceased), Collington Beach, Nova Scotia
- Whale tooth after buried whale fall near Fourchu, Nova Scotia
- No cold stunned turtles! :)