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: 81 educational events and 3 volunteer trainings were conducted in 2022. Over 40,000 people were served in person, online, and through you-tube recordings, and over one million people were reached 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 35 advocacy meetings to speak on behalf of our endangered orcas. Our share the water safe boating webinars and materials educated hundreds of 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 17,000 visitors in 2022, being closed one month due to covid-19. Monthly youth activities continued online, which increased participation two or threefold 21 youth zoom activities were held, reaching over 450 kids. Marine mammal specimens collected by our marine mammal stranding Network were displayed along with education 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 staff are busy creating and updating displays and exhibits seasonally, and as new information and science becomes available.

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, and website. Our sightings outreach increased to include 16,000 on our sightings Network email list, over 250,000 on our Orca Network facebook social media pages, and 500 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, Orca Network collected and shared over 11,000 whale reports in 2022, collected by staff and 2,200 citizen scientists and volunteers. We hired three new sighting Network staff, enabling us to participate in quiet sound's efforts to slow shipping traffic and report southern resident Orca sightings to them. Staff also participated in reporting whale sightings to wa dept of fish & wildlife and noaa during the sinking of the aleutian isle and resulting oil spill.