seadoc map

A bathymetry map, showing the seafloor off of Shaw islands. There are a couple videos on the SeaDoc site explaining the maps: https://www.seadocsociety.org/sucia-map

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m. Emmanuel Parish Hall, Eastsound

On Tuesday, November 12, come hear the charismatic Marine Geologist Gary Greene talk about mapping the underwater habitats of the San Juan Islands, presented by The SeaDoc Society & YMCA Camp Orkila.

You don’t go looking for lions on the Arctic tundra or for grizzly bears in the tropical rainforest – that is if you hope to find them.The topside world presents a wide variety of biomes inhabited by plants and animals adapted to survive in each special place.Our underwater world is no different. However,for people working to recover the Salish Sea,it’s been harder to protect threatened marine creatures and their critical underwater habitats simply because it’s so difficult to find them.

Beneath the surface of the Salish Sea lie a dazzling variety of habitats.We all know about kelp forests and eelgrass meadows and the riot of life they support, but did you know that we have huge “sand waves” that shelter vast schools of sand lance and provide foraging environment for birds like Tufted Puffins and Rhinoceros Auklets? Or that all of the various bottom features scientists have identified – glacial moraines, earthquake-generated rock piles, vertical ice-cut rock walls and mud-filled bays and sounds – each support their own collection of animals?

SeaDoc’s exciting new Tombolo Seafloor Mapping Laboratory is addressing real-time conservation needs by pinpointing Salish Sea habitats. When your goal is to protect important marine creatures like our threatened rockfish species, you can’t get there without a map.

About the Marine Science Lecture Series: The 2013/14 Marine Science Lecture Series is designed to inspire the general public and to highlight the amazing fish and wildlife of our region. Lectures are free.

The Lecture Series is presented by program partners The SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila.It has been made possible through generous sponsorship by Tom Averna (Deer Harbor Charters, Barbara Brown, Audrey and Dean Stupke and West Sound Marina as well as co-sponsorship by Barbara Bentley and Glenn Prestwich, Emmanuel Episcopal Church and Bill Patterson (Chimayo/Sazio).For more information visit https://www.seadocsociety.org.