Map of the recently-named Salish Sea. From the SeaDoc website
From the SeaDoc Society newsletter
Until recently, the inland sea of Washington and British Columbia had no name. Instead it was only known by its parts: Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of Georgia. These names haven’t changed, but now there is a new name for the entire region, the Salish Sea. On October 30, 2009, the Washington State Board on Geographic Names voted 5-1 to name the inland sea the Salish Sea.
Bert Webber, a retired professor from Western Washington University who has been promoting the use of the name since the 1980’s, was pleased with the decision. In response to a congratulatory note that SeaDoc sent Bert last week, he replied, “A lot of credit goes to the support that SeaDoc has given the to the Salish Sea name.”
In a Seattle Times article by Lynda Mapes, SeaDoc claims the official new name an ecological victory. Afterall, how do we talk about conserving a place without even having a name for the place? The border doesn’t mean anything for the killer whales and the Pacific salmon that cross it every day and it shouldn’t to us.
In celebration, SeaDoc is giving out a free 11″ x 17″ color map of the Salish Sea to the next 100 people who sign up for our bi-monthly Wildlife Posts. Tell your friends to sign up at www.seadocsociety.org.
