Interview Archives - Seattle Aquarium

Q&A with Susan Gates, winner of the 2021 Seattle Aquarium Scott S. Patrick Award

Posted on June 15, 2021February 9, 2024 by Emma Leiser

This year marks Susan’s 25th year as a Seattle Aquarium board member, and we’re proud to honor her with the Scott S. Patrick Inspirational Award. Named for the late Aquarium board member and Seattle Seahawks executive who served with extraordinary passion, the Scott S. Patrick award annually recognizes the Seattle Aquarium board member whose service best exemplifies the passion, leadership and enthusiasm that characterized Scott Patrick’s life and board service.

Susan joined the Seattle Aquarium board of directors in 1996 and sits on the finance and project oversight committees. She’s a regional credit administrator for Beneficial State Bank, and her previous experience includes being senior vice president of AmericanWest Bank, Key Bank and several other local and regional banks. She also works on several boards for bank trade associations and community nonprofits, as well as on the College of Business and Economics advisory committee for Western Washington University.

Susan’s lifelong and deep love of the ocean, along with long-held commitments to conservation and environmental justice, are reflected in her many contributions to our organization. We asked about her impressive tenure and valuable insights below:

Q: When did you first fall in love with the ocean, and how has that shaped your life?
A: My husband, Jack, and our grown kids, Margaret Ann and Elk, are longtime sailors and have sailed all over the Salish Sea. We love seeing orcas, humpbacks and minkes from a proper distance; Dall porpoises; and seals and otters. We’ve snorkeled with tropical fish and sea turtles in Hawaii and sailed and snorkeled in the British Virgin Islands and Croatia. All of that has inspired an awe of our one world ocean and a strong urge to protect it, as we have seen fewer and fewer sea creatures over the years inhabiting our area.

Q: What inspired you to join the Seattle Aquarium’s board of directors?
A: The “wow” moment for me was when our family traveled to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago after they opened their Pacific Northwest exhibit in 1991. I had never seen such an amazing exhibit with all of “our” PNW aquatic critters, and I was really struck with the idea—Why isn’t this in Seattle? When we got home, I saw that the Seattle Aquarium was planning an expansion, so I pitched them on using KeyBank (my employer at the time) for the anticipated bond financing. That particular expansion and the bonds never happened, but one thing led to another, and I joined the membership committee, then the board—and the rest is history.

Q: The Scott S. Patrick award recognizes strong leaders on the Aquarium’s board. What advice do you have for students and young adults who want to become effective leaders?
A:

Be curious, ask lots of questions and observe at school, at work and in your community to find out how things work, and follow your passions.
Think actively about examples you see of good, inspiring leadership and ineffective leadership and keep a list about both. You’ll likely find that different leadership styles work with different people/levels of experience/backgrounds/knowledge levels.
Get feedback from team members—it’s vital.
Find a mentor and get their insight while sharing yours.
Volunteer on a nonprofit project. Once you see how that works, volunteer to lead a project. Over time it may lead to a board position where you have to take a broader perspective for the organization.
I’ve found it’s often easier to gain leadership experience in volunteer roles—where the stakes are possibly a bit lower than at work—and find ways to gain more responsibility. Then you’ll have more experience and practice leading when you step up in work roles.

Q: You’re one of the top five longest-tenured Aquarium board members. What keeps you coming back?
A: Through all of these years, there have been interesting challenges for us on the board—always some knotty issue, expansion plans, funds to raise/keep track of, bonds to repay, budgets to balance, events to inspire, guests and members to stir to action, and staff members to encourage and empower.

This past year was awful, but we’ve been resilient and mercifully have had wonderful support from our amazing team members, board and community.

Q: You have an extensive background in finance. Has that perspective given you any particular insight when it comes to supporting conservation of our marine environment? What has that specific perspective made clear to you or brought to your attention?
A: For an organization to continue do good and improve the environment, and more specifically our marine environment, it needs to be on a sound financial footing or it won’t be around to fulfill its mission. And, while there are financial considerations, there is also the human side of running an organization like the Aquarium. We need to be kind and thoughtful with our teammates at the Aquarium; bear in mind how our decisions impact the animals in our care and our mission; and also be mindful of our sustainability as an economic entity.

Q: What excites you about the future of the Seattle Aquarium?
A: We have such a bright future as an organization, starting with the new Ocean Pavilion to expand our marine conservation story and reach. Our recognition of historic inequities in our communities and rededicating our organization to reaching and serving all of our diverse communities and telling their stories and lived experiences is so important. I especially am looking forward to our continued work with the Coast Salish peoples, amplifying Indigenous art and stories as we seek to inspire love and appreciation for our one world ocean.

Q&A with Dr. James Estes, winner of the 2021 Seattle Aquarium Conservation Research Award

Posted on March 5, 2021February 9, 2024 by Emma Leiser

“I fell in love with nature and natural history. From that point on my path was clear."

Dr. James Estes

A world-renowned marine ecologist and professor emeritus at the University of California Santa Cruz (retired in 2018), Dr. Estes is best known for his work on kelp forest ecosystem structure and function—particularly how it relates to sea otters as a keystone species. His career spanned over 40 years, including working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. During that time, he also mentored 30+ graduate students and published more than 180 papers.

We are honored to present him with this year’s award. And, while we can’t gather for our annual Ocean Conservation Honors event to hear his thoughts in person, Dr. Estes kindly agreed to share some of them with us in this Q&A.

Q: What inspired you to choose your career?
A: Several things. My mother’s cousin, Dr. Irvin Buss, was a wildlife professor at Washington State University. His stories prompted me to dream of such a life for myself—studying animals in wild places. But I had little further interest in biology until, as a freshman at the University of Minnesota, I took the introductory biology class. That class inspired me to major in zoology. Then, between my junior and senior years of college, I took two summer field courses—ornithology, the study of birds, and the natural history of freshwater fishes and invertebrates—at the University’s Lake Itasca Field Station. Over the course of that summer I fell in love with nature and natural history. From that point on my path was clear.

Q: What keeps you doing the work you do?
A: Many things. Part of it is the joy of being in nature; part of it is the excitement of learning; part of it is a continuing drive to do something useful with my life. For me, success in research is like an addiction. I can’t stop.

(In addition to the career accomplishments listed above, Dr. Estes published a book in 2016 called Serendipity: An Ecologist’s Quest to Understand Nature and wrote a recent paper, published in Science, that has fueled rich discussion among marine ecologists. He and Seattle Aquarium Curator of Conservation Research Dr. Shawn Larson are currently collaborating on a feasibility study for the reintroduction of sea otters to Oregon for the Elakha Alliance. The Aquarium is also collaborating with him and many others on a new project focused on investigating the role of sea otters and other species as drivers of ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change along the Washington coast.)

Q: What impact do you hope to make with your work—what legacy would you like to leave?
A: For most people, conservation is something we do for ethical reasons. I see conservation as much more than that—something we must do to maintain a world that is fit to live in. I would most like for more people to understand that, and that the conservation of a species like the sea otter is a two-way street—that is, not only do sea otters depend on healthy habitats, but healthy habitats depend on sea otters. You can’t have one without the other.

Q: Ocean conservation is essential for the future of our marine environment. What does conservation mean to you?
A: Two camps have developed in conservation over the past 15 or so years: those who believe in conservation for nature’s sake, and those who consider conservation more from the perspectives of human need and human welfare. Both camps were founded with good intentions and are based on certain obvious truths. But I’m an old-school conservation biologist. In my view, the goal of conservation, first and foremost, should be about the preservation of nature.

Q: Why should people care about sea otter conservation?
A: There are several reasons. One is the ethical imperative to prevent extinctions. Another is because without sea otters, the coastal ecosystems that provide so many services to both humans and nature will be diminished. And yet another is more symbolic. Other large predators, like wolves, sharks and lions, are similarly important to the habitats they live in. In this sense, sea otters are a poster child for the conservation of predators. If we fail to conserve these predators, we will de facto turn nature into a different and less desirable place.

Q: Throughout your career, you’ve explored the connections between large predators and the impacts of these animals on other species and ecological processes. What could humans learn from this research in regard to how we impact our own environment?
A: Large predators have been part of nature for almost a half a billion years. Only since the recent rise of humans have these species begun to disappear. I believe the work my colleagues and I have done shows how catastrophic these losses, if not arrested, will be to our own welfare.

Interested in learning more about our annual Ocean Conservation Honors awards? Read our Q&A with Cristina Mittermeier, winner of the 2021 Seattle Aquarium Sylvia Earle Award.

Q&A with Cristina Mittermeier, winner of the 2021 Seattle Aquarium Sylvia Earle Medal

Posted on March 3, 2021February 9, 2024 by Emma Leiser

“Conservation is a big puzzle, and my job demands that I am an ambassador both for the natural world and my fellow conservationists.”

Cristina Mittermeier

In recognition of her three decades of courageous journalism, and making the pictures that tell the story of our planet, we are honored to present Cristina Mittermeier with this year’s Seattle Aquarium Sylvia Earle Medal.

A marine biologist and activist who pioneered the concept and field of conservation photography, Cristina’s many accomplishments include founding the International League of Conservation Photographers to provide a platform for photographers working on environmental issues and co-founding the nonprofit SeaLegacy, an organization dedicated to the protection of the ocean and which harnesses the power of communications technology to educate and inform the world about the incredible beauty of the ocean, and all of the challenges that it faces in the wake of the climate crisis.

Cristina Mittermeier diving underwater while holding a underwater camera rig. — "I often have to pinch myself when I am reminded that I do have the coolest job in the world. It is an incredible privilege to get to do the work that I do, and I am so grateful and so proud to be one of the women at the front-lines of conservation. Women are taking on more leadership roles in the field; we are scientists and doctors, photographers and filmmakers and we are changing the world together every day. It is important to me to celebrate and support the accomplishments of other women; we need to hold each other up as innovators, and artists and examples for inspiration."—Cristina Mittermeier | Photo: Paul Nicklen/SeaLegacy

In 2020, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Cristina announced the most ambitious project of her career: Only One, a new collective of organizations that uses digital technology and visual storytelling to catalyze lasting cultural change, with the ultimate goal of conserving the world’s oceans from now into perpetuity. She is a Sony Artisan of Imagery and was named one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year in 2018, among many other awards.

Although we can’t honor Cristina’s tremendous achievements at our annual Ocean Conservation Honors event, we can share this Q&A—which Cristina generously participated in from on board the SeaLegacy1 in the beautiful waters of the Bahamas.

Cristina Mittermeier underwater holding coral. — "Titouan Bernicot told me he was 'born on a pearl farm lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.' At age 16, he realized that the coral reefs in French Polynesia were dying and decided to do something to help. He founded the Coral Gardeners, a nonprofit that educates the public about the importance of coral reefs. Now 20 years old, Titouan works alongside his fellow Coral Gardeners to restore the reef on their home island of Mo'orea. Spending time with them and my team at SeaLegacy reinvigorated my own sense of purpose and filled me with hope."—Cristina Mittermeier | Photo: Cristina Mittermeier/SeaLegacy

Q: Art and science can sometimes be seen as polar opposites, but in your work they go hand in hand. How do you weave these two subjects together, and why do you feel it’s effective?
A: For me, art and science very much go hand in hand. I work hard to ensure my images are artistic and beautiful, and I use my scientific knowledge to inform how they are presented to my audience. Every image is an opportunity to tell a story that educates, inspires, amuses and brings people closer to the imperative of protecting our only home.

Q: What keeps you doing the work you do?
A: The knowledge that there is no other choice. Climate change is one of many crises affecting the natural world. I still don’t see the urgent recognition of the need to act swiftly to avoid even more severe planetary consequences.

A salmon swimming in a river. — "When I first moved to the Pacific Northwest, I had never seen wild salmon, especially as they make their way up the beautiful rivers and streams of British Columbia and Alaska and all I can say is, I was blown away. It is difficult to imagine the slice of pink flesh sitting on your sushi or your bagel as an ocean super-athlete but that is exactly what salmon are. After spawning in the clear, cold waters of their native rivers, salmon babies swim out to the ocean and depending on the species, might spend between a year and four years out at sea. Eventually they return to the same stream where they were born, oftentimes having to swim upstream, against the current and dodging dams, fishermen, roads and predators, for hundreds of kilometres. The few that make it, will spawn and then will die. This is an oversimplified story of a very complex creature. Measures must be taken to ensure they don’t disappear like so many other species."—Cristina Mittermeier | Photo: Cristina Mittermeier/SeaLegacy

Q: What impact do you hope to make with your work—what legacy would you like to leave?
A: I want to be part of the generation that creates the paradigm shift I have dreamt of for so long. At the end of my life, I want to know that my contributions helped move humanity toward a better understanding of how to live within our planet’s natural boundaries. Our solutions should not be solely technological, they need to be philosophical, and I know that thanks to my work as an artist and influencer I have a role to play in socializing those ideas.

Q: You practice a principle called “enoughness,” which you’ve said has to do with taking only what you need and using everything that you take, knowing that doing so will allow others to also have enough. Can you describe some of the ways you use “enoughness” in your daily life?
A: That’s easy. Just like I practice yoga and fiscal discipline, I practice enoughness. All that is needed is to ask the question, “How much is enough for me? Do I really need more of X or Y to feel fulfilled and happy? Am I consuming mindlessly, or are my choices thoughtful and considerate?” Enoughness is a personal choice we all can make every day.

Two orcas breaching the surface of the ocean. — "The Salish Sea is an underwater world bursting with biodiversity. Roving pods of orcas patrol the rocky coasts, sea lions congregate in the shallows, and the ocean floor is alive with brightly-colored anemones that rival our ocean’s coral reefs. Recently, our friends at Mission Blue spearheaded by my good friend and ocean legend Dr. Sylvia Earle, have declared the Salish Sea a “hope spot”; a critical marine ecosystem with the potential to replenish our ocean’s biodiversity and support a thriving blue economy."—Cristina Mittermeier | Photo: Cristina Mittermeier/SeaLegacy

Q: You’ve traveled and photographed all over the world. What stands out to you about the waters and animals of the Pacific Northwest?
A: The Pacific Northwest is one of the most abundant and beautiful seascapes in the world. It is not just the ocean, but the menagerie of amazing wildlife that use the water and the land, and the unique relationship that First Nations and Indigenous communities have had with that landscape for thousands of years.

Q: What messages do you aim to send with your work, and what actions do you hope to inspire?
A: I recognize that as more and more people become aware of the perilous situation humanity faces if we continue down the same path, the feeling of guilt and powerlessness can be paralyzing. I have tried to find ways to help people feel like they are invited and welcome to be part of the solutions. By attaching easy actions to every piece of content we produce and publish in our activation platform, Only One, we make it easy and fun for people to help create solutions. We all can be part of making this a better planet.