From mercury and cadmium to selenium and zinc, the elements that accumulate in an animal's body can offer valuable clues about its health and the environment it inhabits. A newly published study in the international journal PLOS ONE is helping scientists better understand what those clues look like in one of the Pacific Northwest's most iconic marine mammals: killer whales.
Drawing on 25 years of opportunistically collected tissue samples from stranded killer whales across the northeastern Pacific Ocean, researchers analyzed concentrations of both essential and non-essential elements in three distinct killer whale ecotypes—fish-eating residents, mammal-eating transients, and offshore killer whales that specialize in eating sharks and other fish. The study represents the largest and most comprehensive dataset of its kind ever assembled for killer whales worldwide.
We’re excited to announce that SeaDoc Society will fund six new science projects in 2026, investing nearly $270,000 in research to better understand and protect the Salish Sea. Carefully selected by our brilliant Scientific Advisory Committee and made possible by passionate donors like you, these projects tackle some of the region’s most important conservation challenges.
Last month a special group of SeaDoc supporters joined our team for a low-tide walk along the shores of the Salish Sea. With the Salish Sea shorelines pulled back, we spent the evening exploring tide pools, spotting sea stars and crabs, and getting a closer look at the incredible marine life that’s often hidden beneath the surface.
Like our good friend Adam Summers over at Friday Harbor Labs told us, you have to be tough to survive in the intertidal waters. Depending on the tides and the seasons, these species can spend hours under the sea or in the direct sunlight; or sloshing about in between the two! Our Science Director Joe Gaydos often shares that message before we respectfully explore the wonders of the intertidal, always leaving it as we came.
For the second year straight, the SeaDoc Society’s Salish Sea Wild series has been nominated for an EMMY by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences!
This year our immersive piece about Grizzly Bears–which saw Joe Gaydos, Bob Friel and the team descend into the Canadian wilderness–was nominated in the North West Chapter's Environment/Science - Long Form Content category!
The SeaDoc Society has hired a new full-time veterinary translational scientist, who will join the team on Orcas Island starting this summer.
Dr. Michelle Barbieri Lino, who interned with SeaDoc as a veterinary student back in 2009, monitoring the marine mammal stranding network among other roles, will be moving to Orcas Island with her husband and 7-year-old daughter this summer.
We’re excited to announce that SeaDoc Society will fund six new science projects in 2026, investing nearly $270,000 in research to better understand and protect the Salish Sea. Carefully selected by our brilliant Scientific Advisory Committee and made possible by passionate donors like you, these projects tackle some of the region’s most important conservation challenges.
Beavers are widespread in estuaries and tidal wetlands in the Pacific Northwest, demonstrating that they are not restricted to rivers and streams according to a new study led by Gregory Hood at the Skagit River System Cooperative and funded by the SeaDoc Society.
The article was published this week by the journal PLOS One and is available to all via open access.
Science is the vital first step in driving positive change for wildlife, people, and the environment. All efforts to change hearts, minds and policy flow from solid data.
This year, SeaDoc Society will fund six new scientific research projects that will ultimately improve the health of the Salish Sea. Each project was carefully reviewed and selected by our Science Advisors and funded thanks to all sizes of SeaDoc Society donations.
Each project is funded at the level of $50,000 and will answer questions where more information is most likely to improve our ability to recover or manage important living resources. In addition to producing quality science to be published in peer-reviewed journals, each project also will meet the criteria most often associated with research that has a positive conservation impact.
We recently funded a project that will study smelt habitat, which is being encroached upon by development. The project uses underwater cages to measure pollution exposure, which you can read about in our June blog post.
Photojournalist Gemina Garland-Lewis is shadowing the team in the field. Here are photos from a recent excursion.
Is a newly discovered shell-boring worm a threat to Olympia oysters—a species of concern and the only oyster species in the Salish Sea?
Dr. Chelsea Wood and her team at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences aims to answer that question. If so, this will be crucial information to modify the current restoration plan for Olympia Oysters (Ostrea lurida).
