2025 Marine Naturalist Training Program Opens Registration

||| FROM CONOR AGNEW for THE WHALE MUSEUM |||

The Whale Museum has opened registration for the 2025 spring and summer sessions of the Marine Naturalist Training Program! This hybrid program is an intensive multi-day overview of the natural history of the San Juan Islands and Salish Sea, and leaves graduates qualified as a regional professional or volunteer naturalist.

The primary focus of the training is the ecology, current status, and conservation of Southern Resident killer whales and other local marine species. The course also includes presentations on cetaceans, pinnipeds, otters, intertidal invertebrates, seabirds, and a variety of other topics such as geology and marine conservation.

Both the spring and summer sessions feature five full days of virtual learning from expert naturalists, educators, and scientists.

Participants will also have the opportunity to sign up for exclusive guided field trips. The field trip portion will include excursions such as a marine wildlife boat trip; birding; a geology hike; tide-pooling; visits to San Juan County Land Bank/False Bay/West side areas and Lime Kiln Point State Park; as well as tours of The Whale Museum and Lime Kiln Point State Park Lighthouse. 

The in-person field trips are optional and not required for certification. Field trips are only open to those who have completed a Marine Naturalist Training Program session. Spots for the field trip portion are limited to 29.

The spring session’s virtual classes take place from April 8 to April 12, with the optional field trips taking place on April 25-27 on San Juan Island.

The summer session’s virtual classes take place from July 8 to July 12, with field trips taking place on San Juan Island on July 25-27.

The virtual portion of the program costs $450 for Whale Museum members and $500 for non-members. Participation in the field trip portion requires an additional fee. For the virtual portion, a limited number of Diversity and Inclusion scholarships are available.

For more information and to register, visit whalemuseum.org. Questions can be addressed to Tracie Merrill at tracie@whalemuseum.org.