Blog

Having clean air and water is something we would all like to take for granted. It is essential to life and important to ensuring healthy communities and ecosystems. That is why Seattle Aquarium was disappointed to learn about proposed actions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will revoke protective water quality standards here in Washington state.

Research shows that encouraging and developing empathy for animals in children is an important motivator toward action on the animals’ behalf. Through grant-funded initiatives, we’ve laid the groundwork for best practices, enhanced visitor programming and promoted industry interest in principles for empathy for animals.

Recently, Aquarium staff and volunteers joined over 15,000 people from zoos and aquariums from around the world to participate in the month-long Plastic-Free July EcoChallenge. Throughout the month, team members took concrete steps to avoid single-use plastics and their efforts produced some amazing results!

This year, the Aquarium has been working hard to raise our collective voice in support of our southern resident orca population. Washington state has taken important steps, but we still have work to do as the southern resident population has fallen to only 73 members, the lowest number since the 1970s.

Have you ever heard of a puffling (a baby puffin)? Did you know that male seahorses carry their young until they are ready to be born? Well, those are just a couple of the fun things you might learn if you come down and see some of the newest additions to the Aquarium!

#4 and final post in the 2019 series of guest blog posts by Seattle Aquarium beach naturalists Bobby Arispe and Jen Strongin.

You may have seen the sad news. It was recently reported that three more orcas are presumed to have been lost from our endangered southern resident population. The Center for Whale Research maintains the official population records for J, K and L pods and issued a statement on Aug. 6 announcing that the southern resident population had fallen to 73 whales.

In May, the United Nations released a research report forecasting the extinction of nearly 1 million animal and plant species due to climate change and human impacts to the environment.Things took a turn for the worse today as the Trump Administration released revised regulations for implementing the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Last June, five biologists from the Seattle Aquarium participated in the Washington sea otter survey, organized and run annually by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), with fellow participants from the Washington State Department of Wildlife (WDFW), the Seattle Aquarium, Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, and Quinault Indian Nation.

Voting and conservation are two things that we are passionate about here at the Aquarium—and it’s the time of year when you should be on the lookout for your Primary Election ballot in the mail! This election we are proud to be supporting the renewal of the King County Parks Levy that will appear on King County ballots as Proposition 1.

If Puget Sound were a grumpy old man, it would rightly say, “Get off my lawn!” But what lawn? What kind of grass grows in the water? If you guessed eelgrass, you’d be right.

Shark and Ray Days at the Aquarium is July 13 and 14, and we’re kicking it off with a diver show at our Window on Washington Waters exhibit, with much more to follow! Join us for two days to learn about these fascinating inhabitants of our Salish Sea—plus how we all can do our part to help them in the wild.