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
Justin Cox
The Ocean is Our Lab

The Molly B skims the water as divers prepare for a day of field work in the Salish Sea. SeaDoc Society’s research assistant Cat Lo gets ready to don her heavy dive gear and take a plunge. One by one, the divers back roll off the boat and splash into the water with their slates and survey equipment. They descend and begin their objective; to survey young-of-year rockfish. 

Cat’s job entails a lot of time spent on or under the water, whether she’s surveying baby rockfish, assisting with killer whale health assessments, or the many other projects SeaDoc has in motion. Time spent in the field comes with its highs, its challenges, and its unexpected outcomes. While all components of science are important, much of the work we do puts us out in the field, interacting with the ecosystem first hand. 

As marine scientists, the ocean is our laboratory. 

The Ocean is Our Lab

sunflower sea stars

Sunflower Sea Stars!

Our dive team has been out surveying for young of the year #rockfish this week with colleagues at Paua Marine Research. While did find the baby rockfish we set out for, we had another exciting finding!

We saw five different large sunflower sea stars. SeaDoc and colleagues have published several papers showing how these “world’s largest” sea stars have been decimated by sea star wasting disease and we’ve worked with numerous organizations to help get them listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN.

Iconic Sunflower Sea Star Listed as Critically Endangered

Iconic Sunflower Sea Star Listed as Critically Endangered

After years of collaboration across more than 60 organizations including the SeaDoc Society, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) as Critically Endangered. The listing effort was led by Oregon State University and The Nature Conservancy.

The designation comes following a marine wildlife epidemic that decimated the animal’s global population and indicates that the sunflower sea star, which plays an important role in maintaining the West Coast’s rapidly vanishing kelp forests, is one step away from extinction.

Sea Star Troubles Run Deep

By Bob Friel

One of the largest marine wildlife disease epidemics ever known to science —Sea Star Wasting Disease (SSWD)—has not spared the Salish Sea. While the most visible effect of the epidemic so far has been the loss of thousands of ochre stars, the Crayola-colored shallow-water species that turn our tide pools into works of purple and orange art, SeaDoc has discovered that great ecological damage is happening in deeper water too.

Drawing on data from more than 8,000 REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) surveys by trained scuba diving citizen scientists along with precise transect studies completed by certified scientific divers, we found that SSWD has decimated populations of the once abundant sunflower sea stars to the point they’re considered virtually extirpated throughout our inland sea.

The Salish Sea hosts a great galaxy of sea stars encompassing a remarkably diverse collection of species. Among those, the sunflower (Pycnopodia helianthoides) holds a special place. Familiar to crabbers who often found them stuffed inside their pots eating their bait, and to divers who commonly swam over bottoms literally crawling with them, before the epidemic began in 2013, sunflowers were the most abundant sea star found below the low-tide mark.

Wasting spiny pink sea star
Wasting spiny pink sea star

The majority of our sea stars are predators, but the sunflower is a carnivore on a whole other level of dominance. Huge, relatively fast, and with three octopuses’ worth of hydraulic-powered arms, it’s the sucker-footed Starasaurus rex of the subtidal kingdom. While most marine life—as well as drysuited divers—steer well clear of sea urchins and their long, prickly spines, the sunflower stars gobble them like candy and then spit out the spiky bits. It’s the loss of such a voracious urchin-eater that’s particularly disturbing when we consider SSWD’s effects on our local ecosystem.

Herbivorous urchins graze on algae. A previous marine epidemic that killed off urchin populations in Florida and the Caribbean allowed algae to overgrow corals and severely damage tropical reefs. In our temperate waters, the concern is the reverse happening: with fewer sea star predators around, the urchin numbers can explode like underwater locusts and decimate the algae, mowing down our vital kelp forests, leaving behind what are known as urchin barrens.

With kelp such a crucial source of food and habitat for so many other creatures, the worry is that the loss of sunflower sea stars, which we’ve learned are particularly susceptible to SSWD, could start a trophic cascade that negatively alters the Salish Sea ecosystem.

SeaDoc and our partners remain on the case as this epidemic continues to affect our waters. We’re continuing the basic critter-counting science that alerts us to changes in the environment, investigating the virus linked to SSWD, and trying to determine whether other environmental factors played a part in the outbreak. If it turns out that intervention is necessary, we’ll be there to provide the science critical to inform the decision-making.