Conservation Archives - Seattle Aquarium

The Seattle Aquarium’s exciting research initiative focused on the ancient, elusive sixgill shark

Posted on May 6, 2026May 6, 2026 by Emma Leiser

Did you know one of the world’s largest shark species is not only found in the waters of Puget Sound—but that individuals have also been spotted directly under the Seattle Aquarium’s Pier 59?

Sixgill sharks (Hexanchus griseus) can grow to be up to 14 feet in length. They’re found worldwide, in tropical and temperate waters (such as those of the Pacific Northwest). And they’ve been around for literally millions of years—since before the dinosaurs, in fact.

Look closely and you’ll see where sixgill sharks got their name!

However, beyond some of the basics, little is known about this species. Why? Because they tend to live deep in the ocean—up to 9,800 feet, or nearly two miles, below the surface!—and they’re elusive, typically preferring very low-light environments. For these reasons and others, it’s difficult for researchers to study them. But, fascinatingly, they’ve been sighted year-round in our local waters, at depths as shallow as 20 feet, which presents us with a unique opportunity to learn more about them.

Getting to know the sixgill shark

While most of the world’s 500+ shark species have five gill slits, aptly named sixgills have six slits along the sides of their heads. With their six gill slits and dimorphic teeth (which means the top teeth are different from the bottom), they bear a closer resemblance to extinct shark species than living ones—which is understandable, given how ancient they are.

Speaking of ancient: Sixgill sharks are presumed to have long life spans, and it’s thought that they reach sexual maturity later in life (20–25 years for males and 30–35 years for females). These two factors together make them vulnerable to overfishing—in other parts of the world, they’re often caught as bycatch or targeted for food and sport. They’re now classified as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and included on the Washington state list of Species of Greatest Conservation Need.

Lastly, they’re carnivores, preying on bottom-dwelling fish and invertebrates (or animals without backbones).

Sixgills are hard to study because they spend most of their lives in deep water and prefer dark conditions—as seen in this photo.

A rare—and unique—opportunity to learn more

Much about the biology and life history of sixgill sharks is unknown. But, using the opportunity presented by their presence in our local waters, the Seattle Aquarium is launching an initiative to increase the body of knowledge about these mysterious creatures. (Or perhaps we should say re-launching. See our FAQ below to learn about our previous work with this species.)

Former Aquarium Dive Safety Officer Jeff Christiansen with a sixgill shark in the early 2000s.

You may be wondering: If these sharks are typically found deep in the ocean, what are they doing in the shallower waters of Puget Sound? Scientists believe females are using our local waters as a birthing area. New Seattle Aquarium research shows that females have birthing site fidelity—in other words, they return to the Salish Sea to give birth multiple times (the amount of time between pregnancies isn’t known). Once the pups are born, the Sound becomes their nursery for another unknown period of time—they remain, it’s believed, because of an abundance of prey.

These young sixgills are referred to as juveniles and subadults. They reside in more southern Salish Sea* sites in the summer and fall, and make small northward migrations in the winter and spring. Their daily movements are typically less than two miles per day: They often rise to shallow water at dusk and descend to deeper water at dawn—likely in search of prey. We think these patterns repeat until they eventually depart for the open ocean.

This consistency of movement and behavior reinforces the strength of our opportunity to study sixgill sharks in Puget Sound.

*Not sure about the difference between Puget Sound and the Salish Sea? Check out our webpage!

Gathering data to increase knowledge and inform management

Through our research, we hope to answer questions about the life history and ecology of sixgill sharks—including migration, growth rates and prey preferences. In addition, given the difficulty of studying these animals, we aim to investigate aspects of their physiology that have never been examined. We also want to understand human impacts, such as how baiting affects sixgill shark movement in Puget Sound.

We’ll share our data and results with the scientific community at large, as well as relevant partners and conservation agencies to help inform management of the species.

"When people think of Puget Sound, they usually picture orcas and other marine mammals. Many are surprised to discover that large sharks live right here in our backyard. I’m excited to seize the opportunity to learn more about these elusive predators thanks to advances in research methods and technology that allow us to further explore a species that remains largely understudied.

Our goal is to answer as many questions as possible—everything from human impacts to physiology to their potentially important ecological role in Puget Sound. We’re collaborating with agencies like the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, the Big Fish Lab at Oregon State University, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and other researchers to fill gaps in expertise, all while keeping animal health and well-being our top priority."

—Seattle Aquarium Research Scientist Dr. Dani Escontrela

Summer of discovery

Starting in May, Seattle Aquarium researchers will attempt to study sixgill sharks at three different Puget Sound locations: off Redondo Beach, in Elliott Bay (near the Aquarium) and in the waters off southeast Bainbridge Island. They’ll visit each site once per month through September.

Most research will take place on the Seattle Aquarium’s vessel. Sharks will be carefully brought to the surface, and depending on their size, will either be quickly lifted on board the vessel using a custom-made cradle or secured at its side and placed on their backs to enter a state of natural tonic immobility.*

Once secured, they’ll be examined by our team—which will always include a veterinarian with extensive shark experience. Sharks alongside the boat will be kept partially submerged to ensure proper aeration of their gills; those on deck will be ventilated using seawater passed over their gills.

We created a custom “cradle” to safely hold a shark while our team works quickly to examine it.

Working swiftly over five to 10 minutes, the team will collect measurements, obtain tissue samples and deploy tags that will provide valuable data about movement, feeding ecology and habitat use. They’ll also take photos to assess whether photo identification is a viable method to identify individuals of this species. With all data collected, sharks will be quickly returned to the open water, and we’ll continue to follow their movements from afar. (See our FAQ below for more details.)

"There are lots of questions we would like to try to answer so that we can help identify what these incredible sharks need and how their lives might be affected by the world around them. For example, we have new methods, such as stable isotope analysis, to understand what they’re feeding on using small blood and tissue samples. Those same samples can help us assess the composition and genetic health of this population relative to 10+ years ago. And we can use tags to better understand their ranges and behaviors at the different sites.

Our priority throughout is the health and wellbeing of each individual—our project design is based around their care—but this gives us the opportunity to better understand an elusive species that is heavily dependent on the waters of Puget Sound."

—Seattle Aquarium Director of Animal Health Dr. Caitlin Hadfield

The work will be led by Research Scientist Dr. Dani Escontrela, Director of Animal Health Dr. Caitlin Hadfield, Senior Conservation Research Manager Dr. Shawn Larson, and others. See our FAQ to learn more about the team and why they’re uniquely qualified to lead this project.

From left to right: Research Scientist Dr. Dani Escontrela, Director of Animal Health Dr. Caitlin Hadfield, Senior Conservation Research Manager Dr. Shawn Larson, Director of Animal Operations Tim Carpenter, Dive Program Manager Joel Hollander.

*What’s tonic immobility? It’s a naturally occurring state that activates when sharks are on their backs—they become calm and motionless for a short period of time, creating the opportunity for safe and painless study before they resume normal activity.

Timing is everything

Although recreational divers are currently reporting frequent sightings of sixgill sharks, we don’t know how long they’ll be around—especially since we understand that both males and females eventually leave our local waters for the open ocean, but we don’t know when.

So there’s some urgency in our project, as well as optimism. We hope to encounter a good number of sharks across all three sites, and use what we learn to increase conservation of these fascinating and mysterious animals. We’re excited to discover more about this species and to share our findings with you, as well as the scientific community, as the project progresses!

"The Seattle Aquarium has been interested in sixgill biology, ecology and conservation for over 25 years. Our efforts in sixgill research in the early 2000s taught us that sixgills were once abundant in Elliott Bay and then were not—because they were growing up, reaching adult size and leaving the Sound for the open ocean. We also found that the sixgills were from one population, and related individuals were often found in the same area.

The new research will build on our earlier work and help answer many questions about sixgill biology and ecology that remain unanswered."

—Seattle Aquarium Senior Conservation Research Manager Dr. Shawn Larson

FAQs

Q: Can I see a sixgill shark at the Seattle Aquarium?

A: Well…kind of. You can see an illustration of a sixgill (and how you measure up to it!) near the Caring Cove play space on Pier 59. But, to thrive, this species needs plenty of room—far more than any aquarium habitat could provide. So, while you can’t see an actual sixgill at the Seattle Aquarium, your visit will help support the work we’re doing to increase understanding of these amazing, ancient creatures.

(You can, of course, see other shark species that thrive in smaller habitats when you visit us: blacktip reef sharks, Indo-Pacific leopard sharks and dogfish!)

Q: Didn’t the Aquarium study sixgill sharks in the early 2000s?

A: Yes! In the wake of increased local sightings in the early 2000s, we actively studied the species through a research program that ran from 2003 to 2015, with a brief pause between 2005 and 2008.

During that study, bait was placed under Pier 59, and when sharks were encountered, Aquarium divers collected skin biopsies and attached external tags for individual identification. Data collected during this period helped identify genetic relationships between individuals, estimate the abundance of sixgill sharks in Elliott Bay and analyze their feeding behavior. However, a decline in sightings (273 individuals between 2003 and 2005 versus 33 individuals between 2008 and 2015) led to the program’s end, as sixgills were believed to have left Elliott Bay.

Interested in learning more? Check out this video, which features our earlier work.

Q: What qualifies the Aquarium to conduct this research?

A: The Seattle Aquarium has 49 years of experience in shark husbandry and veterinary care*, and an 11-year history of conducting sixgill shark research. Additionally, this project has been collaboratively designed with partners from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, Oregon State University Big Fish Lab and Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, who have significant experience with sharks in the region, including sixgills. Partners will join our research trips to help brainstorm, refine methods and share their expertise with our staff.

*Dogfish, small, bottom-dwelling sharks, have been in our care since we opened our doors in 1977. Learn more about them on our webpage!

Individual members of the team also bring a wealth of experience that will benefit this project:

Research Scientist Dr. Daniela Escontrela Dieguez completed her Ph.D. at the University of Hawaiʻi, studying coral predators. Her research was fieldwork-intensive, and as such she has familiarity and expertise conducting research on small boats and large ships. During her undergraduate studies, she served as an intern and trip leader with the University of Miami Shark Research and Conservation Program for four years. During her time there, she participated in at least 100 shark research expeditions, where she employed many of the methods that will be implemented in this project, including securing live sharks, collecting various types of data (measurements, tissue samples, tag deployments), and releasing sharks. She has worked with hundreds of sharks from a variety of species, including tiger, bull, hammerhead, sandbar, nurse, blacknose, blacktip, Caribbean reef and lemon sharks.
Director of Animal Health Dr. Caitlin Hadfield, MA VetMB DACZM DECZM MRCVS, completed veterinary school at Cambridge University, which was followed by a veterinary internship at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, where she became the senior veterinarian. She moved to Seattle in 2017. She is board-certified through the American and European Colleges of Zoological Medicine and has been working with elasmobranchs for 20 years, including sharks, skates, rays, guitarfish and sawfish. She has conducted clinical research and fieldwork on a wide variety of fish and invertebrate species. She is the primary author and editor for Clinical Guide to Fish Medicine and the head of the Veterinary Working Group and part of the steering committee for the multinational zebra shark recovery project (StAR: Stegostoma tigrinum augmentation and recovery) as well as the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Animal Welfare Committee.
Senior Conservation Research Manager Dr. Shawn Larson has been involved in sixgill shark research and conservation for 24 years. From 2002 to 2015, Shawn actively participated in the Seattle Aquarium’s sixgill shark research—baiting, filming, tagging and collecting skin biopsies from free-swimming sixgill sharks below Pier 59. She also led population genetics analyses on skin samples collected at the Aquarium and from longline operations of sixgill sharks conducted by various research partners. Shawn has published six peer-reviewed papers on sixgill sharks focusing on genetics, abundance and conservation, as well as edited four books: two on Northeast Pacific sharks, one on sharks in the United States and Canada, and one on sharks in Mexico. She has also led and organized shark community meetings since 2004, starting with the Cowshark Conservation Workshop (2004–2014), which eventually became the Northeast Pacific Shark Symposium (2014–present), held every two years. Lastly, she has been a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission Shark Specialist Group since 2016 and has participated in shark conservation strategies and Red List assessments. 
Director of Animal Operations Tim Carpenter has cared for fish and invertebrates in an aquarium setting for over 30 years and has supervised animal care and field work for 25 years. During that time, he has been responsible for planning and conducting diving field work and boat-based trips every summer in coastal and inland Washington waters, while managing the Aquarium’s permitting process for all local collections and field activities. Tim was a key participant in the Seattle Aquarium’s earlier work with sixgill sharks, coordinating on-site and underwater diving and tagging operations, and he was a primary author of the resulting paper on the distribution of these sharks in Puget Sound. He has 30 years of experience using all kinds of collecting and sampling equipment, including longlines, seines, hand collection and other field capture methods for teleosts (ray-finned fishes) and elasmobranchs.
Dive Program Manager Joel Hollander is a marine biologist and dive operations leader and has been at the Aquarium since 1998. A key figure in field operations, Joel has been one of the Aquarium’s primary animal collectors for over two decades, specializing in both temperate and tropical species, and has served as primary boat operator since 2005. He was also co-principal investigator on the Aquarium’s earlier sixgill shark research project and has conducted longline surveys for skates, rays and spiny dogfish.

Q: What methods will the researchers use for this project?

A: At each site, the team will deploy fishing lines for short periods of time. While lines are in the water, the team will deploy a baited remote underwater video system (BRUVS), which will help document behavior if sharks are encountered.

If a shark is on the line when it’s pulled back in, the team will quickly either secure it alongside the boat or on the deck using a custom-made cradle (depending on the size of the individual). Sharks alongside the boat will be kept partially submerged to ensure proper aeration of their gills; those on deck will be ventilated using seawater passed over their gills.

In either location, once secured, our team will work as two teams to efficiently collect a variety of data, including:

Length and other measurements to help answer questions about growth rates, maturity and body condition.
Blood, muscle and fin samples to investigate trophic ecology (e.g., food preferences), blood hematology and biochemistry values, stress indicators, toxicology and genetics.

They’ll also deploy two types of tags:

Floy tags will be placed on all sharks and can help answer questions about movement if individuals are sighted by divers or caught by other people. They can also help estimate population abundance if an individual encounters our team again. The tags will have big, visible numbers to help divers and others report sightings using a reporting form.
Acoustic transmitters will be implanted in a selection of sharks by one of our veterinarians and will provide data on movement and habitat use.

Lastly, photographs will be taken to assess whether photo identification is a viable method to identify individual sixgills.

The entire data collection process will take five to 10 minutes. The team will prioritize animal health from start to finish—if an individual displays signs of stress, poor ventilation or poor health, it will be released immediately.

Tired of doomscrolling? Try kelp scrolling!

Posted on March 26, 2026April 9, 2026 by Emma Leiser

We all spend a lot of time on our phones these days. But what if that screen time could help kelp forests?

Welcome to Kelp Quest, a chance for you to participate in the Seattle Aquarium’s marine research.

First, a little refresher. Kelp is a type of algae that provides critical food and habitats to many animal species, including sea otters and salmon. Kelp is also disappearing at an alarming rate. Figuring out how to reverse kelp’s decline is so important that the Aquarium has a research team dedicated to protecting kelp forests. Our Coastal Climate Resilience (CCR) team studies the conditions that contribute to bull kelp thriving or declining in certain areas of the local seafloor, and we share all our research publicly to inform action to protect kelp forests.

The Aquarium’s research team collects images of the seafloor—and we need your help to sort through the data!

You might be familiar with the Aquarium’s remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Our CCR team has used two of these relatively lightweight and nimble vehicles to take tens of thousands of images of the seafloor. The team has trained a machine-learning model to identify the animals, algae, objects and seafloor found in our massive library of images.

Models like the one we use are designed for maximum efficiency and low computational cost. These types of models have been around since the 1950s and are frequently used in scientific and environmental research to find patterns in large sets of data. But the Aquarium’s model is still learning and makes mistakes.

That’s where you come in! Anyone with access to the internet can contribute to Kelp Quest by reviewing and interacting with the collected images.

Diving into Kelp Quest

“None of us were born as kelp experts. We all learned through exposure to animals and algae. This approach leverages our natural ability to recognize details and patterns while supporting ocean conservation.”

—Research Scientist Megan Williams

There are two ways to help. In the “Yes/No” workflow, you can confirm or refute the model’s guess of what is pictured in the image. And in the “Multiple Choice” workflow, you’ll label the image yourself.

Examples of the types of images you’ll help sort.

Don’t worry if you’re no marine expert! The CCR team has developed a handy “Field Guide” that goes over all sorts of things you might encounter, from kelp and other algae to rocks and car tires. The CCR team is also very active in the project’s “Talk” forum, where volunteers can discuss interesting findings or troubleshoot hard-to-identify images.

By helping label these images, not only are you supporting this project, but you’re also helping train our model to be more accurate, further supporting future marine research.

Science is a team sport

“We really want to make our research as collaborative as possible to boost kelp forest conservation efforts. The more hands we have on this project, the faster we can uncover ecological insights that will better inform conservation."

—Research Technician Reid Thomson

Kelp Quest is hosted on Zooniverse, a platform built around the idea that many people (including those with no formal training) can collaborate on research projects together. Many of the projects on Zooniverse require going through large amounts of data, something that would take small research teams ages, even with computer assistance.

But with nearly three million registered volunteers around the world, that work can be done much quicker. And as Zooniverse itself points out, humans are uniquely good at pattern recognition, often even better than computers, as is the case in Kelp Quest.

As an open-source and open-access research project, Kelp Quest is set up in a way that supports the idea that science is a team sport. Open source means the computer code we use to run the model is publicly available for anyone to use and improve. And open access means we make the results of our research (including the model) publicly available whenever possible.

We make our findings available to help promote kelp conservation and further research.

In keeping the project open like this, the CCR team hopes to encourage collaboration and transparency in their work. One of the unexpected benefits to this is that some volunteers have already reached out to get involved with the project or to suggest ways to improve it.

Salish Sea superstar

“Kelp forests and the species that rely on them are beautiful, ecologically important and increasingly vulnerable to human impacts and climate change. We hope Kelp Quest will connect people to this underwater world while directly contributing to research and management decisions that advance kelp forest conservation and restoration.”

—Senior Research Scientist Dr. Zachary Randell, Ph.D.

At the core of this research is the question: What factors contribute to kelp forests thriving or declining?

Bull kelp is a key player in many of the Pacific Northwest’s nearshore ecosystems.

And that’s an important question when it comes to Puget Sound’s marine ecosystem. Like the coral reefs found in warm waters, kelp forests are hotbeds of biodiversity. They serve as habitats for many species, including nurseries for young salmon and rockfish.

These mighty undersea forests also protect shorelines and enrich coastal communities. And the Pacific Northwest’s Indigenous communities have used kelp and stewarded coastal ecosystems since time immemorial.

Whenever you engage with the Seattle Aquarium, be it online or in person with a visit, you directly support vital marine conservation work. Talk about being “kelpful!”

Meet the team

Want to know more about the dedicated scientists leading the project? Read on!

(From left to right) Megan Williams, Reid Thomson and Zachary Randell conduct field research in Seattle’s Elliott Bay.

Dr. Zachary Randell, Ph.D.

Senior research scientist

Zach grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and started scuba diving there when he was 15. His passion for ocean exploration led him to pursue scientific scuba diving at the University of California, Santa Cruz and complete a dissertation at Oregon State University, focusing on long-term kelp forest dynamics, underwater experimentation and dynamical modeling. He has always been eager to explore underwater, and this project allows him and his team to use cutting-edge ROVs and data analysis to study the ocean in new ways.

Megan Williams, M.S.

Research scientist

Megan grew up in Seattle, where sailing and exploring tide pools fostered an early appreciation for the beauty of Puget Sound. That connection to the marine environment led her to James Cook University in Australia, where she studied how coastal ecosystems respond to change. She has played a key role in advancing the CCR team’s spatial analysis and machine learning work and brings a strong field perspective to the team. She remains inspired by Washington’s rugged, green waters and is committed to protecting the natural places that shaped her life for future generations.

Reid Thomson, B.S.

Research technician

Despite his upbringing in the Midwest, Reid developed an unwavering passion for marine life at an early age. Summers spent constantly in and around lakes and streams fused with a love of nature documentaries to drive his fascination with the mysteries held by even larger bodies of water. Reid’s curiosity led him to pursue a degree in marine science at Boston University, where he refined his passion toward a career in marine research. He has a particular fondness for fieldwork that helps him explore Washington’s beautiful, rugged coast.

Quiz: Which 2026 Washington bill best matches your conservation priorities?

Posted on January 22, 2026January 22, 2026 by Emma Leiser

Getting to know Ruby, the new southern sea otter in our care

Posted on December 19, 2025December 19, 2025 by Emma Leiser

Have you heard the news? The northern sea otters in our care, Mishka and Sekiu, have a new habitat-mate! Ten-year-old southern sea otter Ruby joined us on November 19, moving from her former home at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA).

Welcome, Ruby!

Starting (very) small

Ruby was found, stranded, as a newborn pup in September of 2015. Weighing just 1.9 pounds, she was one of the smallest pups her rescuers had ever seen.

She was raised behind the scenes at MBA in their sea otter surrogacy program. After several attempts at having her live on her own in the wild, the team at MBA found that she had become dependent on humans for food. She was ultimately deemed non-releasable by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and went on to join MBA’s sea otter habitat in 2022—where she charmed guests and became a beloved ambassador for her species.

Ruby getting to know her new habitat at the Seattle Aquarium.

From Monterey to Seattle: A true west coaster

For months, our care team worked closely with MBA’s, shadowing their care of Ruby, learning about her history, likes and dislikes, social needs and more. Collaboratively, the teams decided that our otter population would be a great fit for her.

As we mentioned above, Ruby is the first southern sea otter in our care. Southern sea otters are considered a distinct population. And, while southern and northern otters don’t share wild habitats, they do happily cohabitate in zoos and aquariums—their care needs are identical.

(What’s the difference between northern and southern sea otters? It basically comes down to two things: their range and their size. Northern sea otters have a range from Washington state to British Columbia and Alaska. Southern sea otters are found in California. And northern sea otters are larger, with males weighing up to 100 pounds and females up to 70—while southern males top out at about 65 pounds with females around 45 pounds. For context, Ruby’s current weight is 44 pounds; with Mishka at 50 and Sekiu at 54.)

Ruby relaxing with Sekiu.

Settling in

After making the journey to the Seattle Aquarium on November 19, Ruby was quickly introduced to her new habitat—and then to Mishka and Sekiu. In short, things have been going swimmingly!

Comments Senior Animal Care Specialist Kelli Lee, “When introducing an animal into a new habitat, we expect them to be active and explore every inch. After they’ve had a chance to check out their space, we look for behaviors that show they’re comfortable, such as resting and eating. For sea otters specifically, we also look to see that they’re grooming, since that’s essential for staying warm.” (Learn more about how amazing sea otter fur is on our sea otter webpage!)

Kelli continues, “When introducing sea otters, we expect them to interact with each other by sniffing each other’s faces and heads. Then, after this typically brief interlude, we continue to make sure they’re all grooming, eating and resting.”

“They’ve been cohabitating well,” says Animal Care Specialist Michelle Munoz. “Ruby tends to follow Sekiu the most. You can see her resting with Sekiu in the main habitat, and at night, Mishka and Sekiu will haul out on deck by their mats, so Ruby will join them.”

Ruby, we’re so glad you’re here!

Welcome to the Emerald City, Ruby!

Ruby’s preferences quickly became clear to her caregivers. Notes Kelli, “Ruby enjoys interacting with enrichment, such as puzzle feeders, a lot. Her favorite food is shrimp and her least favorites are surf clam siphons and stomachs.” (Can you blame her?)

She adds, “When spending time outside of feeding sessions, she likes to rest in areas of the water that are shallow, such as the arch between the two habitats.” Want to see what she’s up to? Check out our live webcam!

In the weeks and months to come, we’ll continue working with MBA as we learn more about Ruby. “Getting her comfortable in the space is our priority so she can do all the things a sea otter does—like grooming and eating,” comments Michelle. “Building a relationship with Ruby will help us work with her in the long run and also allows us to start training new behaviors with her!”

A decades-long commitment to sea otter conservation

For 30+ years, the Seattle Aquarium has led in the research of sea otters in Washington and contributed to recovery efforts with partners and collaborators around the world. We also have a long history of caring for individual northern sea otters who are unable to live in the wild.

Ruby’s arrival represents our continued commitment to sustaining and recovering sea otters, from California to Alaska and beyond. As a nonprofit, this work—both in the field and right here at the Aquarium—is only possible thanks to the support of our community. Every visit to the Aquarium supports this work and our conservation mission overall. We thank you!

We can’t wait for you to meet Ruby. Plan your visit today!

Taking a bite out of food waste: Composting supports sustainability at the Seattle Aquarium Café

Posted on June 12, 2025June 20, 2025 by Emma Leiser

Compostable packaging from the café ends up helping local farmers grow lettuce and other produce—which then gets served at the café! Photo credit: Sound Sustainable Farms.

When you sit down to enjoy a delicious lunch in the Seattle Aquarium Café, there’s a chance that the lettuce on your burger was grown using “trash” from the Aquarium.

As a part of our vision to become a regenerative institution—one that gives back to the environment more than we take from it—the Aquarium has a complex relationship with “trash.” We know it well. That’s because we work to divert as much “trash” as we can from landfills, with the ultimate goal of becoming a zero-waste facility. Instead, most items on our campus can be recycled or composted.

Composting is a method of breaking down or “recycling” organic matter, including food scraps, into a rich material that resembles soil. Growers use the finished compost to enrich their soils.

OVG Hospitality, which operates the Seattle Aquarium Café, partners with the local composting company Cedar Grove. Cedar Grove provides the compostable packaging for café food and handles the composting process afterward.

Finished compost like this is a soil enricher made of broken down organic matter.

When a used compostable fork or cup enters the compost bin at the café, that is just the start of its journey. Cedar Grove picks up the Aquarium’s compostable materials, which also includes other organic waste and paper towels, and takes them to their composting facility. There, it is processed and refined into high-quality compost.

After that, the compost gets put to work at Sound Sustainable Farms, an organic farm in Redmond that is also operated by Cedar Grove, where it enriches the soil for local produce, which can be enjoyed by many businesses and community members.

Available produce at Sound Sustainable Farms varies by season, but the Aquarium mainly purchases leafy greens like lettuce and kale. We strive to source as much produce as possible from them and plan to buy even more as they continue to scale up their operations.

Cedar Grove’s rich compost is also used by other organizations, including the City of Seattle, and can be purchased by anyone. That means the Aquarium’s food waste goes on to support gardens, farms and green spaces across the region. Through the composting process, the Aquarium and our community can participate in “closing the loop” on sustainability, where discarded “waste” can actually be processed and used in a way that allows for future growth.

By composting food scraps, yard waste and other organic matter, Cedar Grove diverts hundreds of thousands of tons of waste from landfills every year.

The Seattle Aquarium Café also recently took another exciting step toward sustainability by swapping out gas-powered food prep equipment for electric appliances earlier this year.

We all have a part to play in caring for the environment, including by making more conscious decisions about the ways we choose, prep, store and dispose of our food and other waste. So, the next time you’re at the Seattle Aquarium, double check before tossing something out. We’ve got some handy signs in the café to help you sort your “trash.” Because that napkin or spoon could have a second life nourishing somebody’s lunch.

Beyond the bin: What happens to our compost?

Posted on June 12, 2025June 13, 2025 by Emma Leiser

The next time you dine at the Seattle Aquarium Café, you’ll be asked to put food waste and compostable packaging into one of our green compost bins.

What happens to the contents of that bin after you leave the Aquarium? To find out, we visited a local facility operated by Cedar Grove, which provides the compostable packaging used in our café and processes our food waste.

Air, water, wood and microbes form a composting dream team. Together, they undergo a process of around 49 days that produces compost. Cedar Grove then further ages that compost for 12 to 18 months to allow it to mature into a high-quality product that’s ready to be sold!

Follow along to see how your waste is transformed into nutrient-rich compost that helps plants grow and even filters harmful chemicals from run-off along highways! (Hungry for more? Dive into how your compost also powers your next lunch at our café!)

Journey beyond the bin

The Everett facility we visited processes between 700 and 900 tons of compost each day. The high volume means that trucks visit this “tipping building” day and night to drop off new yard and food scraps from homes and businesses. A special biofilter in the back naturally filters the odors associated with unloading the material.

From the tipping building, the fresh material is ground and placed onto an electronic conveyer belt. The material passes under a powerful magnet that removes metal contaminants like nails. Then Cedar Grove shapes it into long rows that are about 10 feet tall and pulls a breathable fabric cover over each row. The cover creates a biosphere where microbes can begin to break down the material. Air and water—microbes’ essential collaborators in this process—are added to the rows.

As microbes work with air and water to break down the waste, temperatures within each row naturally rise to 160 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Cedar Grove’s team carefully monitors oxygen levels and temperature using a probe.

Toward the end of the 49-day process, the covering is removed from each near-final compost row. It’s starting to smell less like food waste and more like a forest floor!

Once the process is complete, the compost is screened for contaminants like plastic. Sometimes it needs one more pass through the system. Here, a Cedar Grove team member holds material that is not ready to use yet even though it has broken down substantially—and will go through these steps again.

Once the final product has been screened and approved by Cedar Grove’s team, it’s ready to sell. Compost that’s ready to sell looks like dark soil, feels velvety and smells woodsy. Cedar Grove turns our compost waste into a variety of soil products that help grow new life, prevent erosion and even line the sides of local highways—where they filter contaminants from runoff including 6PPD, a chemical that’s toxic to coho salmon.

Participating in the life cycle of composting is one of the ways the Aquarium lives its commitment to sustainability. Thank you for doing your part to keep our compost bins free of contaminants and to breathe new life into what would otherwise be waste!

A rosy outlook for rockfish: good news from our research in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Posted on June 11, 2025June 3, 2025 by Emma Leiser

Imagine you’re on a small boat in Neah Bay, located within the traditional waters of the Qʷidiččaʔa•tx̌iq (Makah) on Washington’s remote outer coast. The wind is blowing. Frigid seawater surges around you as the boat rises and falls with the waves.

Why are you here? To scuba dive up to 70 feet below the surface and find a concrete marker, only about a foot long, on a seafloor that’s teeming with life: anemones, sponges, sea stars and more.

And that’s just the beginning: That small marker is the starting point for a survey in which you’ll swim about 280 feet (100m) ahead and behind, taking video of everything in your path—including the rockfish you’re there to count—before you run out of air. When you’re done, you’ll surface, climb back into the boat, move to another site and do it all again.

A Seattle Aquarium diver at a survey marker in Neah Bay.

Twenty years (and counting!) of rockfish research

The Seattle Aquarium launched our research study in Neah Bay in 2005—but our dive team has been sustainably collecting fish and invertebrates for the Aquarium’s habitats in those waters since the 1980s.

“It was very ‘fishy’ in the early years,” says Senior Conservation Research Manager Dr. Shawn Larson, who has been on staff at the Aquarium since 1995. “But as time went by, we noticed things were different. It seemed that we were seeing fewer rockfish but there was no way to know for sure. It was clear that population monitoring was needed.”

A memorandum of agreement with the Makah Tribe was signed, stating that the Tribe gives the Seattle Aquarium permission to conduct this research in their waters, and share the data collected to inform ecosystem management. And with that, our rockfish monitoring study was born.

Go below the surface of Neah Bay with our dive team!

Wait a minute: what’s the big deal about rockfish?

There are over 1,000 species of rockfish around the world, with 34 of them in Washington waters (and 14 at the Seattle Aquarium!). They’re important in a variety of ways, such as:

As mid- to top-level predators, rockfish help maintain ecosystem balance by controlling populations of their prey, including shrimp, crabs and smaller fish. On the flip side, they’re an important food source for larger species like halibut, lingcod, marine mammals and seabirds.
Because they rely on healthy prey to thrive, their health is a good indicator that their ecosystems and prey populations are healthy too.
Rockfish do have a bit of an Achilles heel, though. For fish, they live very long lives (over 100 years for some species!). But they also have an extended generation time—meaning the number of years it takes for them to become sexually mature and produce young of their own. These long life spans and slower reproduction rates mean that every individual rockfish is an important contributor to the biodiversity of the ecosystem and that rockfish population recovery is slow.
There’s more. Check out our rockfish webpage to learn more about these amazing fish!

Now back to the good news

Results from this long-term research endeavor were recently published in a paper co-authored by current and former Seattle Aquarium staff members (including our own Dr. Shawn Larson), a biologist from Makah Fisheries Management, and researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

If you’d like to take a really deep dive—including learning about the research methods and the value of using video as opposed to a more traditional slate and pencil—the paper is available to read online.

What we can share in a nutshell (or maybe a clamshell?) is that results from 19 years of research, across five different sites, revealed that the populations of rockfish in Neah Bay are stable—and even, in some species, increasing.

This is extra good news when you consider that rockfish are still legally fished (within limits) in these waters, whereas rockfish fishing in Puget Sound has been closed since 2010. “It shows that co-management of fisheries by the Makah Tribe and the state of Washington is working,” says Shawn.

A canary rockfish at one of the survey sites.

The work’s not done—for us, and you too

“The news is good but we need to continue monitoring, especially so we can track changes related to climate change,” comments Shawn. Future plans for the study include adding a component to measure water temperature and using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to take measurements in deeper, colder waters.

You also have a role in ensuring that the outlook for rockfish stays rosy—in Neah Bay and elsewhere. Follow regulations if you enjoy recreational fishing. Contact your legislators to urge support for legislation that protects the ocean and its inhabitants. Use public transportation, fly less and limit your use of single-use plastics. Looking for other ideas? Check out our act for the ocean webpage or ask one of our friendly interpreters on your next visit to the Aquarium!

The ripple effect: Former youth volunteers make conservation a career, part 2

Posted on July 3, 2024September 25, 2024 by Emma Leiser

In our recent web story, we highlighted a number of former Youth Ocean Advocates, or YOAs—folks who participated in our teen volunteer program and then went on to a variety of ocean-related careers. Today, we’re happy to share several more.

These are just a few examples of the many young marine enthusiasts (over 2,500 since the program launched in 1994!) who learned and grew at the Seattle Aquarium—and then, in a wonderful ripple effect, went on to make a difference for the marine environment in their jobs and communities. We hope you enjoy reading their stories.

“The Seattle Aquarium shaped my journey and helped me see the tremendous impact of science education in informal settings.”

—Bethany Shimasaki, YOA 2012–2015

Imagine spending your days on the water, helping people discover the wonders of the ocean and the animals that live there. That’s what Bethany does: She works in ecotourism in Washington and Hawai‘i, specifically for small businesses that follow whale-watching guidelines. She shares knowledge with tour guests and, by taking photos of the whales she sees, she’s able to contribute data to researchers.

“I’ve been inspired by humpback whales since I was little,” she says. “I grew up in the San Juan Islands and spent a lot of my childhood on a boat.” Her curiosity and love for humpbacks only grew with time; in high school, she worked as a deckhand for a local whale-watching tour.

“Attending a career fair at the Seattle Aquarium helped me realize that people can do this for a living,” she comments. “I was shy and didn’t see my potential, but becoming a YOA helped me realize that I could talk to people.” She continues, “Education is key to changing policy. And if I can give people a connection to humpbacks, they’ll start caring and acting to protect them.”

“It defined my high school years and gave me a community that I’ll forever belong to. I became a part of the Seattle Aquarium and never left.”

—Trinity Conn, YOA 2012–2015

The first time Trinity walked through the Aquarium’s Pacific Coral Reef habitat, she was captivated. “The corals blew my mind,” she says. “They looked so weird that I just had to know more.” By then, Trinity already knew she wanted to be a scientist. “I loved animals, marine life, the ocean and being outdoors right from the start,” she comments.

Trinity joined the YOA program in high school because she wanted to learn more about careers in marine conservation and see how she felt working in that world. Her years of volunteer service only fueled her interest in coral. “It felt like an unexplored world with so much to learn,” she explains.

That curiosity is still driving her. Trinity recently earned her Ph.D. from Penn State University, where she studied coral genomics and conservation. She is now continuing that work as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Shedd Aquarium.

“Being a YOA was the spark that ignited my lifelong passion for conservation and driving larger social change—it provided a platform for me to learn, grow and hone my advocacy skills.”

—Derek Baker, YOA 1995–1997

Sometimes former YOAs make their way back to the Aquarium—like Derek Baker, our senior director of strategic initiatives and government affairs. After graduating from Western Washington University with a double major in political science and communication, he held numerous roles in government and the private sector related to public policy, community organizing and communications. When the opportunity arose to join our staff in 2018, he jumped at it.

“I’ve always had a passion for our marine environment and effecting change,” he notes. “I was excited to take the skills I learned around public policy, community organizing and the power of connecting with people through storytelling, and apply them to ocean conservation at the Aquarium.”

Derek continues, “The challenges facing our ocean and planet can appear daunting, but educating and bringing government stakeholders to the table can make large-scale change possible for our communities. Just like our ocean, government and its policies touch us all—and bringing policymakers to the table will ultimately lead to a healthier future for everyone.”

“Meeting and working with Seattle Aquarium staff members made me realize I could make my love of the ocean my job.”

—Hyejoo Ro, YOA 2012–2015

Hyejoo grew up in the Pacific Northwest where, she says, “I was always interested in the marine environment, always outside and surrounded by nature—which really helped foster my empathy for animals.” Field trips to the Aquarium, the University of Washington and various labs opened her eyes to the idea that her love of animals and nature could become more than just a hobby.

Hyejoo brought her love for the ocean to college, where she’s currently in graduate school at the University of California–Merced. Her research is focused on understanding the dietary patterns of predators with stable isotopes, which are a tool that traces and reflects diet and habitat. She’s studied how shark or grey wolf diets differ according to different life history traits, like age and sex or where they live. Her work is centered on whether these predators are considered to be keystone species and their impact on other populations.

She’s not stopping there. In the future, Hyejoo would like to continue her research with stable isotopes because, she says, “They are a tool that can shed light on complex ecological interactions between species in any system—marine, terrestrial, estuaries, rivers, lakes and more.”

“My time at the Aquarium helped me break out of my shell. I was super shy and it helped me grow.”

—Liz Allyn, YOA 2014–2015

As a marine mammal technician for Makah Fisheries, Liz has found a sweet spot in the space where policy and research meet. She’s focused on evaluating strategies to restore local salmon, including studying seal and sea lion populations in Puget Sound. In what she describes as “a little of everything,” her role involves both fieldwork and data analysis.

“My childhood was centered around the ocean,” Liz says. She spent weekends on the beach at Golden Gardens and visited the coasts of Oregon and Maine. “I wanted to be either a marine biologist or a human rights lawyer—and, as it’s turned out, my career is kind of an intersection of those things,” she explains.

Participating in what was then called our Citizen Science program through her high school marine biology class in 2012, Liz researched sea stars. “That’s when it hit me: people do this for work,” she says. She soon joined the YOA program, one of the many steps that helped lead her to where she is today. Going forward, she aims to finish her Master of Science in fisheries at the University of Washington and continue working at the intersection of marine ecology and treaty resource management.

Be part of the next generation of Youth Ocean Advocates

With the opening of the Ocean Pavilion this year, the YOA program’s capacity will grow even further. Offering school-year and summer sessions, it’s open to young people enrolled in grades 9–12 in a high school, Running Start, GED or homeschool program at the time of application. Interested in becoming a YOA—or know someone who might be? You’ll find details on our Youth Ocean Advocates webpage.

The ripple effect: Former youth volunteers make conservation a career, part 1

Posted on June 18, 2024September 25, 2024 by Emma Leiser

Our volunteer program for high-school-aged teens, Youth Ocean Advocates (YOA), launched in 1994—and since then, has attracted over 2,500 marine enthusiasts. These youth volunteers (known as YOAs) often share that the experience has either furthered their existing desire for a career in marine conservation, or helped them discover a new one.

Here, we bring you the stories of a few of the many YOAs who have followed their dreams and, in a beautiful ripple effect, are continuing to benefit the marine environment through their careers. Watch for part two of this series, where we’ll introduce you to more former YOAs making a difference for ocean health!

“Having a sense of purpose and understanding the value of your opinion and knowledge was a really important lesson, especially as a young woman of color. It opened doors for me.”

—Jasmine Prat, YOA 2010–2013

Jasmine Prat went snorkeling for the first time during a family vacation when she was in 4th grade. “It blew my mind,” she says. “Seeing a whole new world underwater for the first time.” After moving to Seattle in the middle of high school, she jumped at the opportunity to join the YOA program to learn more about the ocean and meet new people.

“It was priceless,” she says, describing her experience. “It taught me how to inspire others and have an open mind and ear—and developed my own confidence too. Feeling like an expert at that age was really formative.”

Jasmine went on to earn a master’s in environmental science at Washington State University and is now a foreign affairs specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring, Maryland. In her role, she helps draft and implement international policy regulating the high seas and marine mammal bycatch.

“My time at the Aquarium was my base. It locked me into wanting to be a marine biologist.”

—Emma Strand, YOA 2012–2014

Emma Strand grew up loving the ocean and fantasizing about being a marine biologist. She says that, in addition to solidifying her career ambitions, participating in the YOA program helped increase her communication skills and confidence.

Scuba diving played a key role too. During a dive in Honduras, she saw the effects of coral bleaching firsthand, and found it fascinating that some corals were bleaching while others still appeared to be thriving.

“That experience sparked a curiosity that’s become the basis of my research,” she says. After earning her Ph.D. in biological and environmental sciences with a specialty in evolution and marine biology from the University of Rhode Island, she joined Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute as a postdoctoral scientist. Her current research is focused on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture—developing genomic tools to advance research-based sustainable management of marine environments; and climate change resilience— investigating how marine organisms respond to rapidly changing environments.

“It was a transformative experience for me. The program showed the potential to bridge passions into careers.”

—Noah Chesnin, YOA 1997–1999

Noah Chesnin was 16 when he joined what was then called our teen naturalist program in 1998. “I was shy and nervous,” he recalls. “But putting on a Seattle Aquarium t-shirt gave me the confidence to share my passion with visitors.”

After earning a master’s in environmental management from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, Noah went on to a stint at the Conservation Law Foundation, shaping policy related to ocean issues. That experience helped him realize that he wanted to focus on engagement and build a public movement.

He’s now the director of policy and outreach for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Seascape Program, the conservation initiative of the New York Aquarium, where he leads policy advocacy work, including nominating and building a coalition to advocate for the designation of Hudson Canyon as a National Marine Sanctuary. He also serves as vice chair of the proposed Hudson Canyon National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council and on the executive committee and as policy work group co-chair of the Aquarium Conservation Partnership—a consortium of 29 U.S. aquariums and zoos working collaboratively on conservation policy.

“Becoming a YOA gave me confidence to talk to anyone—as well as confidence in what I did and didn’t know.”

—Anja Brandon, YOA 2008–2012

As a young child, Anja Brandon loved animals and dreamed of working at a zoo. But a field trip to the Seattle Aquarium changed all of that. “I fell in love with the tiny invertebrates and was inspired by how everything appeared to be connected and worked together,” she says.

She joined the YOA program as soon as she was able, and credits it with helping to develop her public speaking and customer skills. “Having exposure to staff members and volunteers alike helped build connections that I’ve been able to use throughout my career,” she comments.

And what a career it is! With a Ph.D. in environmental engineering at Stanford University, Anja is now the associate director of U.S. Plastics Policy at Ocean Conservancy, where she helps write legislative text for states working on policy. Among her many achievements, she helped write the federal “Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act” (S. 984) and California’s “Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act” (S.B. 54).

Be part of the next generation of Youth Ocean Advocates

How will the Ocean Pavilion model sustainable design?

Posted on May 15, 2024May 26, 2025 by Emma Leiser

This summer, the Seattle Aquarium’s campus will expand when our new Ocean Pavilion opens.

As we began this project, we asked ourselves a key question: How can a technically complex building like an aquarium—which must keep animals healthy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year—model sustainable design?

Navigating that answer has spanned years and included architects, regenerative designers, engineers, builders, animal experts and many others! Dive in with us:

The Ocean Pavilion’s sustainability features

When it’s complete, the Ocean Pavilion will be owned by the City of Seattle. It will serve as a living laboratory dedicated to ocean health. With that in mind, we designed the building to use energy, water and materials efficiently and with care. The Ocean Pavilion will:

Operate 100% fossil fuel free.
Recirculate 96% of the salt water in its habitats—meaning that once water enters the building from Elliott Bay, it remains in the building.
Recapture heat from the warm-water habitats to warm the building.
Feature carefully chosen materials, like the Alaskan yellow cedar exterior panels on the building’s west face, which are Forest Stewardship Council-certified and come from an Indigenous-led company.
Use large windows to reduce the amount of electricity needed for indoor lights.
And much more!

Explore salt water in the Ocean Pavilion: The Ocean Pavilion’s saltwater habitats are what’s called a “closed-loop” system. Watch our video to learn more:

Get nerdy with us: Learn how our Water Quality team uses science to maintain healthy saltwater habitats.

What “green building” certifications is the Ocean Pavilion pursuing?

The Ocean Pavilion will be LEED Gold-certified (update, May 2025: certification received!). We’re also targeting Zero Carbon Certification from the International Future Living Institute (ILFI), which includes requirements beyond LEED.

The ILFI is a global nonprofit that certifies advanced sustainable and regenerative buildings. ILFI Zero Carbon Certification is a rigorous international standard for buildings that are highly energy efficient and have fully neutralized their carbon emissions, meaning that they do not add any net carbon to the atmosphere.

Earning this certification requires neutralizing both operational and embodied carbon:

Operational carbon comes from emissions required to heat, cool and power the building.
Embodied carbon is different. It refers to emissions generated by raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation and installation of building materials (in other words, the emissions generated by creating the building’s materials and constructing it).

Zero Carbon Certification requires us to offset 100% of the building’s operational energy use with new renewable energy. Some buildings meet this requirement by adding rooftop solar panels, but our rooftop will be a space for the public to enjoy. So, instead we’re working on an agreement that will add additional renewable energy capacity to Seattle’s electric grid.

The best part? This additional capacity will meet our needs and provide additional renewable energy that others can use. Stay tuned for more details on that step.

Many green building experts consider ILFI certifications like Zero Carbon Certification to be especially challenging. Why? They’re based on actual performance over 12 consecutive months—not plans or estimates. We’re proud to be the first aquarium building in the world to pursue an ILFI certification. We hope to be the first of many.

A growing number of organizations are adopting this certification:

Climate Pledge Arena here in Seattle (world’s first arena to be certified)
Google’s 6 Pancras Square office in London (world’s first building project to be certified)
Microsoft’s Puget Sound and Silicon Valley campuses (pursuing certification)

Why the focus on carbon?

We all impact the ocean through our actions. The Aquarium is no different!

Too much carbon in the atmosphere is warming the ocean and planet. These changes are wreaking havoc on delicate ocean ecosystems. As coastal storms intensify and seawater levels rise, human communities are feeling the impacts too.

Since 2012, the Aquarium has been carbon neutral, meaning that we’ve offset any emissions we’ve produced so that we don’t add net carbon to the atmosphere. And since 2014, we’ve offset more carbon than we emit for scope 1 and 2 emissions. In 2020, we took that further by also offsetting more than we emit for select scope 3 emissions. (Learn more about scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions on the EPA website.) When purchasing carbon offsets, we work with a climate consultant to select options that are third-party verified and align with our values.

Plans are in the works to revitalize the other buildings on the Aquarium’s campus—and we’ll continue challenging ourselves to meet tough green building standards. This goal complements the work we’re doing every day to conduct marine conservation research, advocate for ocean-friendly policies, rescue animals, provide exceptional animal care and restore endangered species—all of which are possible with support and engagement from our community members—like you!