Orca Network

Education, events and outreach: education coordinator, staff and volunteers coordinated Orca Network events and presentations, with in-person, online and hybrid educational experiences offered. Staff educated hundreds of school students of all ages, conducted field trips, and trained pods of volunteers to do outreach through regional fairs, festivals, and events: 55 educational events,3 volunteer trainings, serving over 50,000 online and through youtube recordings in 2023, and reaching over a million people through our new website and social media sites. Staff created educational materials to raise awareness about the endangered southern resident orcas and other whales and marine mammals of the salish sea, and engaged participants in actions to help the whales and to share what they learned within their own communities across western Washington. Staff also attended 45 advocacy meetings to speak on behalf of our endangered orcas. Our share the water safe boating webinars and materials educated nearly 3,000 boaters about how to be safe around whales and marine mammals when boating in the salish sea.

Langley whale center: the langley whale center served 29,000 visitors in 2023, finally returning to pre-covid numbers. Monthly youth activities continued online, with 13 youth zoom activities held, reaching over 444 kids. Six field trips serving 152 students were carried out at the whale center, and 31 volunteers gave 1911 hours of time to help us keep the center open with no admission charge. Marine mammal specimens collected by our marine mammal stranding Network were displayed along with education and displays about the work done by stranding staff and volunteers, who respond to hundreds of calls about stranded marine mammals on the beach throughout the year. Whale center and education staff are busy creating and updating displays and exhibits seasonally, and as new information and science becomes available. Several major new exhibits are in the works.

Whale sighting Network and orcasound listening project: the whale sighting Network provided researchers, government agencies, and the public with detailed whale sighting reports gathered by staff, volunteers, and the general public. Through our continued involvement with the orcasound listening project we provide researchers, government agencies, and the public with the ability to monitor whales and ship traffic noise through hydrophones using the orcasound hydrophone system and collecting and sharing whale reports via an online app, social media, emails, phone/text, and website. Our sightings outreach increased to include 16,000 on our sightings Network email list, over 271,000 on our Orca Network facebook social media pages, and 1250 on our whale sighting text alert list to educate and share whale sightings and info. To people in Washington state and around the world. Data from these whale sightings provides trends in habitat use, population status, and the health of endangered orcas in the pacific nw. Orca Network collected and shared over 14,847 whale reports in 2023, collected by staff and 3000 citizen scientists and volunteers. We have continued with a four person sighting Network staff, with one staff change, and now have one staff member with her masters degre and another just completing her doctorate. We continue participating in quiet sound's efforts to slow shipping traffic in puget sound to protect southern resident orcas, work with the us coast guard cetacean desk, noaa fisheries, wa dept of fish and wildlife, and other agencies to assist with, track, and protect orcas and other whales.