Cheers to 20 Years of SeaDoc Society

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Take a look outside. We live in a truly special place, and with that comes a responsibility. It’s a responsibility that can transform your life. It can give you purpose. It’s a chance to make a real difference.

The Salish Sea is home to nearly 5,000 miles of picturesque coastline and more than 400 lush and rugged islands. It’s home to 37 species of mammals, 172 species of birds, 253 species of fish, and more than 3,000 invertebrates.

It’s also home to 8 million people, including two massive port cities and hundreds of towns strung together by bustling freeways, every bit of it uphill from the sea. Our global ocean is threatened by massive forces like climate change, and making a difference on that scale can feel daunting.

For 20 years, SeaDoc Society has worked to protect our beloved slice of that ocean. It’s people like you who’ve made that work possible.

Over and over, year after year, you have chosen the Salish Sea. You have stood up for this special place and its wildlife. You have stood up and said that science and education can make a difference.

When Kathy and Ron McDowell met with Dr. Jonna Mazet at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Wildlife Health Center in 1999, their vision for the SeaDoc Society was born. But Kathy and Ron’s inspiration, which brought Science Director Joe Gaydos and his family to Orcas Island, was just the beginning.

Stephanie Wagner was a donor we had never met but who’d been inspired by our work. When she left us our very first legacy gift, she changed the Salish Sea forever. Her gift funded our groundbreaking, multi-year project to understand the decline of marine bird species, which set the stage for our current recovery efforts… a true legacy.

When hundreds invested in our Salish Sea Forever campaign, you took us from one scientist and two part-time staff members to a full, collaborative team with a Regional Director and experts dedicated to outreach and youth education.

It was our summer auction attendees who raised $75,000 so that Joe and SeaDoc Board Member Audrey Benedict could write a National Geographic-style, award-winning book all about our home. It’s sold nearly 20 thousand copies and sits on the bookshelves and coffee tables of countless state and national legislators, and has inspired thousands more to know, connect and protect the Salish Sea.

A couple of years later, we adapted a version of the book for kids, and hundreds of you supported our grassroots crowdfunding campaign, putting more than 4 thousand copies in the hands of Salish Sea students to date. Those books have gone to Title One, First Nations and Tribal schools, ensuring that anyone can become a Salish Sea Hero.

Twenty years. That’s 7,300 days. That’s more than 29,000 tide changes.

And beneath every one of those ebbs and flows, hundreds of perfectly evolved species have split their time between the cool breeze and the sloshing salt water of the Salish Sea.

Meanwhile, our team has been out there working to protect their home. We’ve been in the field conducting important science and funding other bright minds to do the same. We’ve worked with policy makers to ensure our work leads to real, lasting change. We’ve been in classrooms inspiring a new generation of heroes.

Our scientists took to the sea floor when 90% of our Sunflower sea stars were wiped out in just one year.

We were there when Tahlequah carried her dead calf more than a thousand miles over 17 days, and we helped perform the first intervention on a wild killer whale when Scarlet began her decline.

And thanks to you, we’ll continue to be there.

You’ve made the last 20 years possible. Now it’s time to think about the next 20 years. The next 7,300 sunrises and sunsets. The next 29,000 tide changes.

It’s time to invest in something that regulates our climate, produces the fish we eat, and makes the oxygen we breathe.

It’s time to invest in the very soul of who we are.

The Salish Sea.

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FOOTAGE: Bob Friel, Justin Cox, Florian Graner, Joe Gaydos, Jamie Gilardi, Andrew Hopkins, Bureau of Land Management Oregon and Washington, Jon Orr, NASA, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, SilentObserver, Neil McDaniel, NOAA.