Lives filled with generosity remembered; Conservationist is mourned

Grand Mananers, as well as many in the marine conservation world, mourn the recent passing of Laurie Murison, who died on January 3 after a lengthy battle with cancer. She was 61.
Murison was executive director of the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station (GMWSRS). After arriving on the island in the early 1980s to work on her master's degree with the University of Guelph's Dr. David Gaskin, Murison soon discovered her passion: whales. "If you wanted to see a smile, you'd take her to see whales," says the station's senior scientist, Heather Koopman.
Over the years that followed, Murison conducted her own research and assisted others in both university and government programs. Some of her projects included surveys and research on grey, bowhead and right whales, and she was instrumental in getting the Fundy shipping lane moved to protect the latter. She contributed many photos to whale identification catalogues and worked to save entangled and injured marine mammals and birds. She consulted with the Grand Manan Fishermen's Association on whale entanglement reduction. She also taught courses to all ages, from high school to Elderhostel, and developed the museum that now occupies part of the GMWSRS house.
Allan McDonald operated Whales n Sails, a tour boat company, with his family for 17 years. For about 12 of those years, Murison conducted her research while serving as the boat's naturalist. "People loved her," McDonald says. "People picked that tour because of her; people came back because of her." While he and Murison gave similar tour introductions, "People would say 'we can't hear Laurie,'" he laughs. "We had a good time. I learned a lot."
Identifying the whales they saw and sharing their histories were not only interesting for the tourists but also contributed to population studies. Murison tracked seabirds, sunfish, sharks and any other species of interest. "She knew her stuff," McDonald says, relating an occasion when they saw a rare petrel. When she posted her sighting online, another naturalist contacted her to tell her she must have seen something else. McDonald says she told him quite firmly, "I know when I've seen something different."
McDonald calculates he put in about 30,000 sea miles in his whale watching, which started in 1999. "Laurie started in 1982, which gives you an idea of how much more time she spent out there. Being out on the Bay of Fundy -- she lived for that."
Ashore, Murison with her husband Ken Ingersoll spearheaded the campaign to save Swallowtail Lighthouse, which began in 2008. Ingersoll relates how residents rallied when the village decided to sell Swallowtail Point along with all the buildings except the lighthouse, which was still owned by the Coast Guard. The Swallowtail Keepers Society (SKS) was formed; it now manages the property on a 20 year lease from the village.
Beginning with a big Earth Day cleanout in 2008, Murison, Ingersoll and a succession of volunteers created a gift shop, repaired the bridge, path and buildings, added benches, interpretive signs and a memorial deck and returned the fog bell to the point. Murison and Ingersoll loaned the money for the first project, and Murison sought grants for further work.
Ingersoll said a government minister who toured the site "was ecstatic at how much we did with $35,000." The Coast Guard was also "so excited at what we were doing," and the partnership has blossomed, with the Coast Guard handing over ownership of the lighthouse in 2013. More restoration followed; Murison did much of that work as well. "My wife was a workaholic who could do six things at a time," Ingersoll says.
Murison's interest in heritage preservation extended in recent years to the Grand Manan Museum, where she was board president and a regular summer lecturer. Curator M.J. Edwards could not be reached for comment, but she told CBC Radio that she would miss Murison's great ideas and practical problem solving skills. The expansion of the outdoor exhibits was her vision, and Edwards said she continued to chair meetings and help with renovation and yard work throughout her chemotherapy treatments. "We accomplished more in the last five years at that museum than in the last 50," she said. "She never let anything get in her way. I don't think anyone has touched the lives of islanders so many different ways as Laurie."
The New Brunswick Museum's (NBM) head of natural history, Dr. Don McAlpine, recalls Murison as "Irreplaceable -- the person who got...so many things going and ensured that they got done." He adds, "She really understood the value and importance the natural history collections at the NBM play in the natural sciences in Atlantic Canada."
McAlpine says, "Were it not for Laurie and her husband Ken Ingersoll, the skeleton of Delilah the right whale would not be now hanging in the public galleries of the NBM." In 1992 Murison and Ingersoll coordinated the salvage of Delilah's carcass for research, and the exhibit has "become a potent symbol of the plight facing the North Atlantic right whale population."
Murison regularly sent specimens to the museum, and McAlpine says, "Testament to her commitment to the cause, about a month before her death she was on a Grand Manan beach in less than ideal weather cutting the head off a dead seal" to send to the museum's collection.
Murison's efforts were to have been recognized this winter with an honorary doctorate from the University of New Brunswick (UNB). Koopman says, "It made her so happy. She was very proud, very honored. It was something to look forward to. It was very much deserved." She adds that more happy moments came last fall when Murison was able to make a couple of whale observing trips.
Murison recently donated her research materials to UNB, the New Brunswick Museum and research station workers. "It was a sad day when she gave her library away," Ingersoll recalls, but McDonald says, "She was pleased to see her work go where it would be used by students and researchers for generations to come."
"She was a strong determined force," Koopman says, adding that although it will be difficult to fill her shoes, GMWSRS will carry on with the museum, education and research, because Murison would have wanted that. They hope to plan a tribute in the summer, perhaps in partnership with other community organizations.
Ingersoll is looking forward to the construction of a memorial deck at the Whistle lighthouse, now also under the Swallowtail Keepers Society's management. He adds that Swallowtail's gift shop and lighthouse will be open, stating, "We'll make sure all her interests are looked after."