The State of the Salish Sea: A Preview of the Upcoming Report

Dramatic aerial view of the salish sea with forrested land mass and white clouds and blue sky

WHEN
Thursday, February 25, 2021
4:30-5:30 p.m. PST

LOCATION
Online

PRICE
Free


 

Check out this video to watch the The State of the Salish Sea: A Preview of the Upcoming Report.

The Salish Sea is a transboundary ecosystem with almost 9 million people living within its boundaries. It is an estuary defined by numerous and extensive watersheds delivering freshwater and strong physical forcing bringing salt water from the Pacific Ocean.

But the ecological function of the Salish Sea is being undermined by two pervasive threats: a growing human footprint and climate change. These impacts are not isolated—the intersection of the two yields cumulative effects across a variety of ecosystem components that are not easily measured and that are variable in space and time.

A report assessing the international Salish Sea ecosystem has not been done since 1994. The forthcoming State of the Salish Sea report takes a detailed look at legacy, continuing, and emerging threats and describes opportunities to build understanding, resilience, and improvement within the ecosystem.

More information about the speaker series is available here.

Kathryn Sobocinski

Dr. Kathryn Sobocinski

Speaker

Dr. Kathryn Sobocinski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and the Marine and Coastal Science program at Western Washington University. She is an applied marine ecologist focusing on fishes, fish habitats, and impacts of human disturbance and climate change in coastal ecosystems. Currently, Dr. Sobocinski works on several projects within the Salish Sea, including investigations on herring egg mortality, the trophic impacts of large jellyfish aggregations, and ecosystem indicators related to salmon in the Salish Sea. She is the lead author for the upcoming State of the Salish Sea report coordinated by the Salish Sea Institute at WWU.
 

Upcoming Talks

March 4, 2021
Speaker: Darcy Mathews, Assistant Professor, University of Victoria
Title: Relatives of the Deep: The Ethnoecology of a Lekwungen Archipelago in the Salish Sea

March 11, 2021
Speaker: Marco Hatch, Assistant Professor, Huxley College
Title: Using Clam Garden Research to Span the Boundary Between Indigenous Communities and Academic Research
 

Questions and Accommodations

Stefan Freelan is the coordinator of the Huxley Speaker Series. Feel free to email stefan@wwu.edu or call (360) 650-2949 if you have any questions or comments.
 
There will be auto-captions available for this event. To request closed captions, please mark the request on the registration form. Advance notice of three days to one week is appreciated.