Justin Cox
Meet Our 3 New Board Members: Scott White, Barb ...

The SeaDoc Board is instrumental to our mission here in the Salish Sea. Scott, Barb, and Jeff bring unique expertise, passion, and dedication to our team and we’re so excited to have them! View the whole board here and learn more about Scott, Barb and Jeff below.

Justin Cox
A Non-Invasive Tool For Collecting Killer Whale ...

Drones can be powerful tools in gathering important health data about wildlife, including marine species like the Salish Sea’s endangered killer whales. Scientists have already established the benefits of collecting breath samples to monitor orca health, but we wanted to scientifically understand if it is less invasive than previous sampling methods–namely the use of a long pole with a petri dish extended from a nearby boat toward the whale’s blowhole.

A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Marine Mammal Science, led by SeaDoc Society Research Assistant Catherine Lo, answered that question by analyzing more than 1,000 drone-collected killer whale breath samples. 

A Non-Invasive Tool For Collecting Killer Whale Breath Samples
Justin Cox
Meet SeaDoc's Newest Science Advisors, Caitlin ...

This summer, our brilliant Scientific Advisory Committee gathered in Seattle to assess and ultimately determine funding for five new critical research projects here in the Salish Sea. You can read about those here.

Our Science Advisors are a vital part of our mission, and we’re excited to introduce two exciting new additions. They are Caitlin Magel of Puget Sound Institute and Phil Bloch of Confluence Environmental Company. We asked them a few questions so you can get to know them a bit better. 

Welcome Caitlin and Phil! 

Justin Cox
SeaDoc Announces More than $200,000 in New ...

We're excited to announce that SeaDoc Society will fund five new scientific research projects aimed at improving the longterm health of the Salish Sea. Each project was carefully reviewed and selected by our Scientific Advisory Committee and funded through your donations from people like you.

We look forward to sharing more about each of these as fieldwork ramps up, but here is a brief look at the newly funded projects:

SeaDoc Announces More than $200,000 in New Funded Research
Justin Cox
Joe Gaydos Elected to Washington State Academy ...

The Washington State Academy of Sciences has elected 36 new members in recognition of their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement. Among the select group in this year’s slate is SeaDoc Society Science Director Joe Gaydos!

Joe Gaydos Elected to Washington State Academy of Sciences

tides

Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean (Book Review)

Book Review by Joe Gaydos:

By Jonathan White
Trinity University Press, San Antonio
2017

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Jonathan White's book Tides: the science and spirit of the ocean is a must-read for anybody who loves the ocean. Tides govern the ocean yet wait for no one. So why do so few people really understand how they work? Because they're complicated. Tides have both fascinated and confused the likes of Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Sir Isaac Newton, just to name a few of the great minds discussed in this easy-to-read, science-come-action adventure book. Despite the complex nature of the subject, White takes the reader on epic journeys around the world exploring big tides and big wave surfing, diving and sailing, shore bird migrations, and even a tidal bore in China that rears to 25 feet "terrorizing everything in its path." The writing is so accomplished and the content so fascinating, it is not surprising that by the time you have followed White's adventures trailing Greg Long surfing Mavericks, dropping below the frozen surface of Ungava Bay to harvest mussels with Inuit Lukasi Nappaaluk, or discussing climate change and sea level rise with Kuna Indians in Panama's San Blas Islands, you're begging for just one more tidally-based adventure with him. What was surprising upon finishing Tides, was realizing that White had done for me what oceanographic textbook after marine biology textbook could not, he taught me to understand the physical workings of tides and helped me to appreciate the legacy that gravity, the moon's elliptical orbit around the earth, and the earth's geology provide for the world's oceans - White taught me the beauty of tides.

Coming next: Gaydos reviews Dr. Drew Harvell's new book, A Sea of Glass: Searching for the Blaschkas' fragile legacy in an ocean at risk