Thousands of fifth-graders will cycle through Camp Orkila on Orcas Island this summer to engage with our marine ecosystem. As we round the corner into Spring, the counselors who will guide those kids (5,800 total!) are deep in preparation and training.
Last week, our team was honored to lead a low-tide beach walk at Camp Orkila to train this year’s Orkila staff. All of the counselors received a signed copy of our best-selling (and award-winning!) book for fifth graders, Explore the Salish Sea: A Nature Guide for Kids.
As I write this, sitting in The Woods taproom where Southern Resident is brewed, Two Beers has donated more than $15,000 in support of the SeaDoc Society’s collaborative work to save Southern Residents.
Not to mention the story they’ve helped tell on thousands of boxes and cans sold throughout the Pacific Northwest over the last five years. In that initial creative design phase, their team was insistent that the whales’ story and SeaDoc’s mission be clear and prominent on the packaging.
For decades, fish-eating killer whales in the Pacific Northwest have been observed harassing and even killing porpoises without consuming them—a perplexing behavior that has long intrigued scientists.
A study published today in Marine Mammal Science, co-led by Deborah Giles of Wild Orca and Sarah Teman of the SeaDoc Society, a program of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, looked at more than 60 years of recorded interactions between Southern Resident killer whales and porpoises in the Salish Sea to better understand why they exhibit this behavior.
I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest my entire life—currently residing in Seattle. I’m a local artist specializing in scientific illustration of marine organisms. I’m a divemaster and free-diver, and spend as much time as possible underwater. I love combining my art with my love for the sea, using paint as a tool to celebrate the natural world.
By Joe Thoron
Talk about mixed feelings! After almost a decade of hanging around the SeaDoc offices, first as a consultant and then as an employee, I'm moving on to a job opportunity too interesting to pass up (a startup still in stealth mode).
I first met Joe Gaydos because our daughters were in preschool together. When he told me about SeaDoc, and that it was trying to save marine wildlife and the marine environment not only by doing great science but also by making sure the results got into the hands of decision-makers, I was hooked.
It wasn't long before I was helping Joe write a piece about SeaDoc's traveling harbor seal skeleton. Then I was fixing up the website. Then helping to write and send the newsletter. The more work I did with Joe, Jean, and SeaDoc's amazing board members and supporters, the more I loved it. So it was a natural step to join the staff about 5 years ago.
As I roll out of here, I want to give a big shout out of appreciation to everyone here in the office and at UC Davis. And I especially want to say thanks to all of the great donors and supporters I've had a the privilege to get to know over the past decade. SeaDoc attracts some of the warmest and most generous & thoughtful people I've ever met. It's been a great adventure!
