Several Seattle Aquarium employees volunteered to help organize and participate as officials in this year's Orca Bowl. Orca Bowl is a full day competition that tests high school students' knowledge about the world's oceans. The competition is organized in a round-robin format, with a double elimination round for the top teams. This year, there were 16 teams that participated in the competition, including two new teams from Ellensburg and Tacoma SAMI. It was amazing to see how these high school students could quickly and correctly answer questions regarding various ocean topics. Some of these topics included marine studies, technology, biology and geology.
After a long day of competing, teams from Friday Harbor and Garfield high schools fought for the top position in the 12th round of the competition. In the end, Friday Harbor won the top spot and will move on to the National Ocean Sciences Bowl finals in Baltimore, MD.
At the end of the competition, the 16 teams then departed to the Seattle Aquarium for the awards ceremony and banquet, where they celebrated and relaxed.
Congratulations to all of the teams that participated in this year's Orca Bowl - we hope to see you next year!