About Whale Seeker
OUR STORY
Whale Seeker is a Montreal-based startup that leverages AI to simplify marine mammal monitoring. Founded in 2018 by Emily Charry Tissier, Antoine Gagné-Turcotte and Bertrand Charry, Whale Seeker is bridging the divide between profitability and sustainability by making marine mammal detection fast, accurate, and accessible.
MEET THE TEAM
Our growing team of biologists, ecologists, data scientists, software developers, and AI specialists all leverage AI to deliver better, simpler, and faster marine mammal detection data. Interested in joining? Check out our careers page.
OUR MISSION
We aim to make marine mammal detection as fast, easy, accurate and affordable as possible.
OUR VISION
We know that technology has the power to help marine mammals and humans not only coexist, but thrive – so we're building the tools to make that possible.
PRODUCT VIDEO
Hear from our team on the crucial need for fast, accessible imagery analysis, and Whale Seeker's groundbreaking capabilities.
OUR COMMITMENT
We’re proud to be a certified B corporation.
B Corps are businesses that have achieved the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Unlike traditional companies, B Corps are legally required to consider their impact on all stakeholders, not just shareholders. These values and standards are especially meaningful assurances for our ethical AI goals.
As part of the B Corp family, we complete yearly impact assessments to quantify our positive impact in five key areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and clients. Whale Seeker scores big points on prioritizing the financial security of its employees, supporting businesses in its local community, and sharing its expertise in environmental best practices.
We use tools like the SDG Action Manager to help us identify further improvements we can make, and are committed to conducting business respectfully and responsibly. Whale Seeker is working hard to bridge the divide between sustainability and profitability.
OUR ETHICS
Technology Use
Ensuring data confidentiality is of paramount importance to Whale Seeker. We prioritize the privacy and security of your data throughout our processes. When you entrust us with your data, we handle it with the utmost care and respect. We strictly adhere to robust data protection measures to safeguard your information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
At Whale Seeker, we have implemented strict protocols and employ industry-leading practices to maintain the confidentiality of your data. Our commitment extends to ensuring that your data remains exclusively yours. Once we have completed the necessary analysis or processing, your data is promptly returned to you, further reinforcing our dedication to data confidentiality.
Rest assured that by partnering with Whale Seeker, your data is handled with the highest level of confidentiality, respecting your privacy and maintaining the trust you place in us. We abide by the Montréal Declaration for a responsible development of Artificial intelligence (AI). This declaration suggests an ethical framework for the development and deployment of AI to achieve an inclusive, equitable, and ecologically sustainable development.
SDGS
SDG 5. Gender Equality
What's the goal?: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
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What's Whale Seeker doing?: We create a safe working environment for all genders and make an extra effort in our recruitment to offer opportunities for women in STEM careers. We offer flexible working hours and locations to make sure that women and men have as much opportunity as possible to succeed in their careers while balancing the demands of family and personal lives.
SDG 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
What's the goal?: Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.
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What's Whale Seeker doing?: We are committed to sustainable growth economically, environmentally, and socially. It’s part of our value system and official mission, and we are legally bound to these ideals as a B Corp. We pay every employee a living wage and offer opportunities for further training, collaborations, and professional development.
SDG 9. Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
What's the goal?: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.
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What's Whale Seeker doing?: We work with (and for) people and entities who are also striving to create inclusive and sustainable economies. A significant portion of our efforts are dedicated to innovation research and development targeted to better our natural world and create powerful environmentally responsible solutions.
SDG 10. Reduced Inequalities
What's the goal?: Reduce inequality within and among countries.
What's Whale Seeker doing?: To reduce income inequality we pay all employees a living wage and offer room for advancement. We participate in B Corp equality workshops and are always working to improve our justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion policies to make sure they are aligned with our growing team and the changing world.
SDG 11. Sustainable Cities And Communities
What's the goal?: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.
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What's Whale Seeker doing?: Whale Seeker’s main goal is to create tools to enable humans and marine mammals to coexist in beneficial ways. We believe the use of our solutions on small and large scales provide ways for human marine activities to grow more sustainably. We also create company initiatives to support our local community, such as our Neighbourhood Support Program in response to Covid’s impact on small companies close to our home and headquarters.
SDG 12. Responsible Consumption and Production
What's the goal?: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
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What's Whale Seeker doing?: In our work environment, we recycle everything we can and practice responsible consumption of everything from energy to food and transportation. The solutions Whale Seeker creates contributes to more eco-friendly supply chains for marine shipping, as well as coastal and marine development. Remote sensing tools for marine mammal monitoring are less or non-invasive, and also create a lower carbon footprint than traditional methods.
SDG 13. Climate Action
What's the goal?: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
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What's Whale Seeker doing?: We have policies to promote biking and public transportation, recycling, and responsible resource use. In addition, our core offerings use remote sensing tools such as drone or satellite images for marine mammal monitoring that use fewer fossil fuels than traditional methods of airplane/motorboat travel and surveillance. As our climate continues to warm, natural disasters are also increasing in severity and frequency. Whale Seeker is working with private and public partners to create marine mammal mitigation solutions in the event of oil spills and natural disasters.
SDG 14. Life Below Water
What's the goal?: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.
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What's Whale Seeker doing?: Detection and monitoring tools are essential for measuring the health of the ocean and understanding its changes. We create access to fast, reliable data on finer spatial and temporal scales, enabling decision-makers to enact policies and actions in a timely and more effective manner to preserve marine mammals. Our solutions protect oceanic biodiversity and healthy fisheries.
We are also committed to donating 1% of our revenue to nonprofits helping to protect the ocean.
SDG 16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
What's the goal?: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
What's Whale Seeker doing?: We are dedicated to improving accountability, integrity, and transparency within our own businesses and the countries in which we operate. We are actively working with Canadian partners to build circular economies for sustainable development.
SDG 17. Partnerships For The Goals
What's the goal?: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
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What's Whale Seeker doing?: We have projects and partners in North America, Europe, and Australia, with more projects on the horizon! Our solutions address a global problem and offer a scalable solution available to all.
AI is a powerful tool that can be used for good, though it’s each company’s responsibility to ensure their AI be used ethically. We believe how AI is developed is as important as what AI is used for.
Emily Charry Tissier,
CEO
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