Conservationist, author returns for Orca Tour 2019

Tuesday, September 24, 7 p.m., San Juan Island Yacht Club

— from Jenny Atkinson for The Whale Museum —

Erich Hoyt, internationally renowned author and marine conservationist, is returning to deliver a new series of talks about orcas and marine conservation. Orca Tour 2019 follows the sell-out 2014 and 2015 tours and will focus on Erich’s efforts to protect marine mammal habitats worldwide and how they might support the conservation of orcas in the North Pacific. The talks, as well as the release of Erich’s expanded new edition of Orca: The Whale Called Killer, are especially timely given the recent loss of three southern resident orcas.

Orca: The Whale Called Killer charts Erich Hoyt’s adventures and conservation work, which began with killer whales off the B.C. coast and was followed by two decades of orca research in Kamchatka, Russia. As co-chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force, and policy lead for the Healthy Seas program of the U.K.-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), Erich co-directs a 10-year project to map the habitats for 130 species of marine mammals across the world’s oceans. His book, “Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises,” has helped set the standard for marine biodiversity conservation work.

“This is a rare chance to hear from Erich in person,” said Donna Sandstrom, Executive Director of The Whale Trail and a member of Governor Jay Inslee’s Task Force on Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery. “Erich has been thinking about how to protect orcas as long as he has been writing about them, starting in the 1980s when he contributed to the successful effort to protect Robson Bight, a critical habitat for the northern resident orcas. Erich’s talk will inspire and inform our efforts to protect J, K and L pods, here, where his work began.”

Erich added: “It’s special for me coming back to the Northwest to celebrate this new edition of my book—the work that set me on a life path. In my talks, I will introduce a global context for addressing threats and supporting marine habitat conservation. Much has changed for the orcas here. People know the individuals and their families and appreciate their precarious existence—especially the endangered southern residents. We all want to do more to help them.”

The Orca Tour is organized by The Whale Trail. The September 24th event in Friday Harbor is co-hosted by The Whale Museum and sponsored by Mikes’ Café & Wine Bar, Island Inn at 123 West, Meadow Hospitality, and San Juan Island Yacht Club. Orca: The Whale Called Killer and Erich’s other books will be on sale at the event. A Q &A and book signing will follow presentation.

About The Whale Trail

The Whale Trail inspires appreciation and stewardship of orcas, other marine mammals and the marine environment by identifying a network of viewing sites along the whales’ trails through the Salish Sea and along the Pacific Coast. From 16 inaugural sites in Washington State, the trail now includes more than 100 sites from British Columbia to Southern California. The Whale Trail has its roots in a rare conservation success—the successful return of the orphaned orca, Springer. Our vision is a fully recovered Southern Resident orca population thriving in a healthy sea for generations to come. www.thewhaletrail.org

About Author and Conservationist Erich Hoyt

Erich Hoyt has spent much of his life on or near the sea, working with whales and dolphins and marine conservation. An award-winning author, he has written or co-written more than 20 books and hundreds of magazine articles on whales, dolphins, as well as ants, insects, wild plants and other subjects. In 2013, Erich won the European Cetacean Society’s Mandy McMath Conservation Prize for his body of work. www.erichhoyt.com