Blog

Studies have shown that the communities least responsible for environmental degradation most often take the brunt of it.

Other studies demonstrate a lack of diversity in conservation organizations—and a “green ceiling” effect means that the diversity that does exist is primarily at the entry level and decreases at higher (managerial and executive) levels.

The Seattle Aquarium is working to address both of these issues with its new empathy fellowship program: Facilitated by the newly created position of empathy fellowship coordinator, three empathy fellows will join our staff early this year.

For 50 years, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has helped prevent damage to the environment and protect the health and welfare of people. NEPA was passed by Congress a year after the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which had disastrous consequences for marine life. Since then, NEPA has been a powerful tool in ensuring that actions taken by federal agencies—including licensing and permitting projects—are closely reviewed and regulated based on sound science so as to not cause severe harm to the environment.

How many giant Pacific octopuses live in Puget Sound? It’s a question we hear frequently at the Seattle Aquarium’s Life of a Drifter exhibit. And in 2000, we set out to try and answer this common query with a survey and have continued every year since.

Just in time for Octopus Week, we bring you a typical day in the life of a giant Pacific octopus (GPO) in our care!

Every fall, rivers and streams throughout Washington state welcome back five different Pacific salmon species—Chinook, coho, chum, pink and sockeye—that call these waters home. These heroic fish have been on a long journey that took them from the rivers where they were born to the open ocean and back again to create the next generation and continue the cycle.

The Seattle Aquarium hosted its annual Ocean Conservation Honors dinner on January 30. We were honored to present Former Secretary of the Interior, the Honorable Sally Jewell with the Seattle Aquarium Sylvia Earle Medal; Dr. Drew Harvell with the Conservation Research Award and longtime board member Gary T. Smith with the Scott S. Patrick Inspirational Award.

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse, valuable and fragile ecosystems on Earth. Despite coral reefs only representing 1–2% of total marine habitat, 25% of marine life directly depends on them for survival. Unfortunately, land-based pollution and warming ocean temperatures are threatening these critical ecosystems.

What do a day octopus, frogfish and dwarf cuttlefish have in common? At the Seattle Aquarium, they were all subjects of a study by one of our Warm-Water Fish and Invertebrate team interns. Below, she shares her study findings and thoughts on interning for the Seattle Aquarium.

The Seattle Aquarium and our partners in the Environmental Priorities Coalition have been working hard to increase protections for the critically endangered southern resident orcas. In the 2019 legislative session, we helped to pass four key orca recovery bills.

On January 20, nine Youth Ocean Advocates marched down to Olympia to lobby for the Reusable Bag Bill. While it has already passed in the Senate, it’s very important that it passes in the House and becomes a statewide law, as thin plastic bags are getting into our water systems and the toxics are spreading into our fish (and other wildlife), and therefore into ourselves.

These tiny brown-and-gray birds—they weigh only 1.23 ounces each, about the equivalent of a nine-volt battery!—have a big impact on everyone who meets them with their “ability to capture the hearts of visitors because of their tiny, adorable appearance,” says Animal Care Specialist Sara Perry.

Plastic in the ocean is a very serious—and growing—issue. Approximately 8.8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean each year. Seabirds, sea turtles, dolphins, whales and other animals die every year because they get tangled up in plastic or fill up their stomachs on plastic they mistake for food. To help address this crisis, the Seattle Aquarium worked hard last year to advance a Reusable Bag Bill in Washington state.