MLK Jr. Day of Service

Please join the AmeriCorps for a community service event in honor of MLK Jr. Day! 

Make it a day on, not a day off! 

We will be pulling invasive species of Himalayan blackberry and English ivy. 

Refreshments will be provided!

RSVP to Sarah at scroston@ptmsc.org

Share that you're going with your friends using the Facebook event HERE!

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BROOKE ASKEY is the Citizen Science Educator and an AmeriCorps Member at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center

Port Townsend Marine Science Center to Host New Year’s Eve Cruise

Port Townsend, WA, December 31, 2016—The Port Townsend Marine Science Center is inviting participants to cruise with them to Protection Island aboard one of Puget Sound Express’ heated, fully enclosed whale-watching boats with 360-degree windows, wrap-around observation decks, and a cozy interior. The sail will take place on Saturday, December 31st from 1-4 pm, leaving from the dock at the end of Water Street in Port Townsend and setting off on a 3-hour adventure.

Port Townsend Marine Science Center Naturalist, Roger Risley, will be onboard to assist in wildlife spotting and interpretation, accompanied by informative Port Townsend Marine Science Center hosts.

A staple of the science center’s seasonal offerings, the New Year’s Eve cruise is wildly popular among tourists and locals alike. Participants enjoy a leisurely tour of the wildlife sanctuary and the enlightening comments from the onboard naturalist. In addition to experiencing and learning about the local marine life, participants have also gotten to witness a variety of birds while taking the cruise including loon, grebe, cormorant, merganser, duck, scoter, phalarope, tern, and puffin, just to name a few.

PTMSC Executive Director Janine Boire is confident this year will be no different. “We have been partnering with Puget Sound Express for this special holiday birding adventure around Protection Island for years,” Boire said. “It’s such a unique, special way to connect people with the Salish Sea and celebrate the holiday seasons. The New Year’s Eve cruise, in the midst of the busy holiday season, makes it particularly popular for those with family or friends visiting looking for a festive and warm way to get out on the water.”

The New Year’s Eve cruise departs at 1 pm on December 31 from the dock opposite the Puget Sound Express offices at the east end of Water Street in Port Townsend and returns to the dock at 4 pm. Tickets for the Protection Island New Year’s Cruise are $80 per person or $60 for members of PTMSC, Audubon, Burke Museum, or Washington Ornithological Society.

For more information on the New Year’s Eve Cruise, or to reserve your spot here or call (360) 385-5288.

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center is inspiring conservation of the Salish Sea. A new initiative—Gone Green? Go Blue! Support Your Local Ocean—encourages collective action and civic engagement. Located on the beach at Fort Worden, the PTMSC offers two public exhibits: the Marine Exhibit and the Natural History Exhibit. The Natural History & Orca exhibit is open Friday through Sunday, 12 to 5 pm. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for youth, and free to PTMSC members. The PTMSC also offers a wide variety of educational programs and special events. For more information, call 360.385.5582, e-mail info@ptmsc.org or visit www.ptmsc.org/events.

Sea Star Wasting is Not a Party

When I arrived at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC) from Texas, I was prepared to show off my knowledge of marine mammals while learning more about other organisms such as birds and invertebrates. Little did I know that I frequently made a common slip – “starfish? Don’t you mean sea star?” After decades of confusion, scientists have pushed for a change from starfish to sea star, and nobody told me! If you’re lucky, you can catch me for an easy opportunity to poke fun at this simple transition.  

A blood star (Henricia leviuscula) with abnormal arm growth. Photo: PTMSC

I knew these invertebrate animals were named for their trademark five-armed, radial symmetry, and are not fish. More than 2,000 species of colorful sea stars sport five arms, even though some species can have 10, 20, or up to 50 arms. It is also not unusual for a five-armed sea star to have six arms due to abnormal growth.

Sea stars are echinoderms, which translates to “spiny skin.” Their living relatives include sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and sand dollars. The PTMSC Marine Exhibit hosts all of these, with short to long spines, and colors ranging from purple, pink, and orange!

I had never felt a sea star’s leathery skin before I began working at the Marine Science Center, nor was I aware of how varied the colors can be. They use colors as camouflage in a number of environments, ranging from tide pools to more than 6,000 m below sea level. The sea stars in the Marine Exhibit (ME) are a deep purple, peach, or neon orange, and are within your reach. Sea stars move and flex using a water vascular system. They pump seawater through their body, filling and emptying tiny, suction-cupped tube feet to extend, retract, or even create suction to scale any surface. One leather star (Dermasterias imbricata) even used its tube feet in an effort to help clean their tide pool tank! The tube the star is grasping a gravel tube, which staff and volunteers use to clean the gravel of the tanks, while in the meantime picking out any discarded clam shells from a sea star’s previous feast.

Giant Pink Star helping to clean. Photo: Mattie Stephens

Most sea stars also have the amazing ability to consume prey outside their bodies. Using their tube feet, they pry open clams or oysters.  Then, the upper portion of their stomach (known as the cardiac stomach) emerges from their mouth and oozes inside the shell. The clam’s muscles tire against the strong, hydraulically operated tube feet, and eventually open. The stomach then envelops the prey to digest it, eventually withdrawing back into the body.  At this point, the lower, or pyloric, stomach digests whatever is remaining.

Sea stars are famous for their ability to regrow limbs and entire bodies. This feat is possible by housing most or all of their vital organs in their arms. Rarely, the “central body disc must be intact to regenerate, but a few species can grow an entirely new sea star just from a portion of a severed limb” (National Geographic, 2016). Sea stars can willingly detach an arm to distract a predator to get away, or in a method of reproduction. There is a spreading epidemic of arms shedding and sea stars dying due to disease (National Geographic, 2016).

What factors cause these arms to shed unwillingly? Sea stars have been known to suffer from desiccation, or drying out, resulting in lost limbs. However, even healthy sea stars can suffer from sea star wasting disease. This disease causes rapid tissue degradation in sea stars, resulting in lesions on the arms and the body deflating (referred to as a loss in turgor pressure), giving the sea star a melted appearance. The process happens quickly, fully enveloping a sea star within three days, usually ending in death. The disease can spread between individuals, and has resulted in devastating losses, not only in natural habitats, but in aquariums as well. A few weeks ago, I watched as PTMSC lost its last mottled star to sea star wasting. Over the past few years, over 50% of the sea stars in the Marine Exhibit have succumbed to wasting.  

Top: An infected arm of a mottle star (Evasterias troscheli)
losing water pressure. Photo: PTMSC
Bottom: A mottled star succumbing to sea star 
wasting disease

PTMSC is taking part in monitoring this devastating process. Sea star wasting can cause large die-offs of these important animals, and although sea stars are slow moving, they are instrumental in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. The health of the ecosystem would crumble without sea stars, making them what is known as a keystone species. Sea stars help keep their tide pool and coastal ecosystems in check. PTMSC citizen science volunteers participate in a quarterly survey on Indian Island, where they monitor plots designed to observe the health of local sea star populations. This year, November survey team, led by fellow AmeriCorps Juhi LaFuente, observed numerous healthy ochre (Pisaster ochraceus), sunflower (Pycnopodia helianthoides), and mottled stars (Evasterias troscheli); these species tend to be the first affected by the virus. This is good news for our scaly friends, as it indicates there may be a shift towards reduced die-offs and a slowly recovering ecosystem.

Sun Star discovered in this year’s monitoring program. Photo: Betsy Carlton

The ecosystem recovery process will take a long time. Activists and citizen scientists are working hard on improving the overall health of the ocean, as even the slightest increase in temperature can wreak havoc on an ecosystem. The Marine Exhibit and Natural History Exhibit have taught me several ways that I can individually reduce my impact and waste output. Living in Port Townsend has illuminated healthier living practices for me, and I have been embraced by an environmentally conscious town. The more I learn about sea star wasting, the more pressing environmental stewardship becomes.

Please consider donating today. https://ptmsc.org/get-involved/donate

- Mattie Stephens is the Marine Mammal Stranding Network Coordinator/Educator and AmeriCorps member serving at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center

The Wonders Beneath the Waves

Eelgrass Meadows are an important habitat for many animals in the Salish Sea © PTMSC 1991

When walking on the beach near Fort Worden, I am always on the hunt for Eelgrass (Zostera Marina) to add to our display in the Marine Exhibit. I often find what I’m looking for near the high tide line, in a tangled ball that has been uprooted and washed ashore by the waves. Searching for Eelgrass is like a treasure hunt for me, where each tangled ball I find is a clue that  provides me with insight to the wonders that lie beneath the waves. Adding the Eelgrass to the display transforms it even further. The tangled mass I collected on the beach unfurls. Vertically suspended in the water column the blades of Eelgrass sway as the water circulates throughout the tank.

Eelgrass (Zostera Marina) collected

off of the beach at Fort Worden. Photo by Juhi LaFuente

The Eelgrass tank illuminated by sunlight.
 Photo by PTMSC

At first glance, this tank appears to be filled with Eelgrass and nothing more. However, upon further examination, what I think is a piece of Eelgrass turns out to be a juvenile Bay Pipefish (Syngnathus leptorhynchus) seeking refuge in the tangle of blades. I begin to notice more and more pairs of eyes peering back at me. Tiny Tadpole Sculpins (Psychrolutes paradoxus) dart back and forth, and eel-like fish, called Gunnels, peak their heads out to survey their surroundings. Along the bottom, Crabs scuttle and a Sea Cucumber slowly grazes in search of food. This underwater meadow is, in fact, teeming with life.

A Bay Pipefish (Syngnathus leptorhynchus)
disguises itself as a piece of Eelgrass.
Photo by Juhi LaFuente

The Eelgrass display in the Marine Exhibit provides visitors with a glimpse into an important nearshore habitat that often goes unseen beneath the waves. Eelgrass is a flowering marine plant that is widely dispersed throughout the Salish Sea. Found in tidelands and shallow waters, Eelgrass thrives in soft sediment habitats that receive plenty of sunlight. A network of underground stems, called rhizomes, help stabilize the surrounding sediment and anchor the Eelgrass in place. In dense meadows, blades of Eelgrass also help impede current flow and buffers the shoreline from oncoming waves.  


Many invertebrates and fish depend on and use Eelgrass beds for food and protection from predators. Eelgrass helps ensure the survival of juvenile fish such as Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) and Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). These fish are important sources of food for many animals. Chinook salmon are the preferred food of the Southern Resident Orcas (Orcinus orca) residing in the Puget Sound.    

Found in such close proximity to the shore, eelgrass beds do not go undisturbed by humans. Eelgrass beds in the Puget Sound are threatened by shoreline development, including dredging and the construction of over water structures that block sunlight. Boaters also risk damaging these beds by cutting the grass with their propellers and tearing it up with their anchors. In order to protect Eelgrass habitat, boaters are advised to slow down or stop when cruising over Eelgrass beds and encouraged to avoid anchoring in eelgrass altogether.
 

In an effort to protect Eelgrass beds, the Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee established voluntary “No Anchor Zones” along the Port Townsend Waterfront. These zones are marked by special buoys and protect over 50 acres of Eelgrass in the waters off Port Townsend. Since the installation of these buoys in 2004, the Marine Resources Committee has observed a  98% compliance within these no anchor zones.

As the AmeriCorps Marine Exhibit Educator, I enjoy engaging visitors in conversations about our local marine life and important nearshore ecosystems like Eelgrass. Your donations to support the Marine Exhibit help ensure that visitors of all ages will be able to continue to explore, observe and learn about the wonders beneath the waves. The Marine Exhibit plays an integral role in helping us fulfill our mission “Inspiring Conservation of the Salish Sea”, Thank you for making this possible through your continued support.

Please consider donating today. https://ptmsc.org/get-involved/donate

Juhi LaFuente is the Marine Exhibit Educator and an AmeriCorps member serving at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.

"Why are the Crabs Dirty?"

Please consider making a gift today to support our tanks, and our decorator crabs from the Salish Sea. Donate HERE!

“Why are the crabs dirty?” I heard behind me in the Marine Exhibit one day. Thrown off by the visitor’s question, I turned around and my eyes focused on the crab they were pointing to in the wall tank. It all made sense when I saw the graceful decorator crab scuttling along among the abalone, away from the sides of the tank, almost as if it knew it had been found. I jumped into educator mode right away, and answered, “That’s a great question.”

A (dirty?) graceful decorator crab (Oregonia Gracilis) hanging out

on the inflow of the small wall tank. Photo by Juhi LaFuente

The most wonderful aspect our Marine Exhibit is the chance to gain new knowledge about Salish Sea fish and invertebrates. When I first started at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, I knew very little about specific species of crabs. Aside from what I had learned in my college invertebrate zoology class, I hadn’t thought about them much. However, once I started feeding individual crabs, and interacting with them in tanks every day, they became one of my favorite animals in our Marine Exhibit. As a person who is recovering from a phobia of spiders and spider-adjacent creatures, it means a lot when I say that I think the way these arthropods walk around the tanks and move their little maxillipeds (mouth parts) is quite cute. I love inspiring others to see them the way I do now. So, when I explain how decorator crabs got their name, and see others’ eyes light up with fascination, it is a truly fulfilling experience. I hope I can light your eyes up, too.

Decorator crabs consist of many different species, all belonging to part of the superfamily Majoidea, known as spider crabs. We have many spider crabs in our exhibit, but not all are decorators. The decorator crab in question was the graceful decorator, Oregonia gracilis, a naturally abundant Puget Sound species. If you can spot them, graceful decorator crabs can be found in the small wall tank, against the back wall of the Marine Exhibit. In our huge piling tank, we have another type of decorator crab, called the longhorn, Chorilia longipes, which is usually hanging out against the tank walls, looking at the passers-by. These crabs’ natural ecosystem includes kelp forests and the intertidal zone, ranging from Alaska all the way down to Mexico, but they’re particularly abundant in the Pacific Northwest. In nature and in our tanks, the decorators are covered in foreign material (hence their dirty appearance) and found behind rocks and kelp, hiding from predators like fish, sea otters, and octopus.

Longhorn decorator crab (Chorilia longipes) hanging on the pilings. Photo by Wendy Feltham (Checkout our Instagram to see a video of this crab with a filter-feeding hitchhiker on its arm!)

The decorator crab namesake refers to the way they adorn their bodies with all kinds of ornaments. The decorations include almost any materials found in their environment. The crab’s hard outer shell, or exoskeleton, has tiny hooks all over called hooked setae. Hooked setae act as a sort of Velcro on which the crab can stick materials it picks up from its environment. Their adornments act as a camouflage, but also as a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship. The “materials” picked up by the crab can include some bryozoans, hydroids, algae, sponges, and small anemones. Invertebrates gain access to parts of the water column and food they wouldn’t usually have access to by hitching a ride on the back of the crab. In turn, the crab gets an easy disguise, and when resources are limited, also an easy source of food. If a crab finds an accessory like chemically-defended plants or stinging anemones, the crab is even less likely to be predated upon. Larger crabs need fewer decorations because they can defend themselves, but they’ll often still wind up with some hitchhikers on their backs.

The decorating doesn’t really stop after covering the exoskeleton canvas; a crab is always working. Crabs’ exoskeletons do not grow with them. As they outgrow their armor, they grow a new shell underneath the old, effectively forcing the old exoskeleton off. After disrobing, the crab will hide until its new exoskeleton hardens, and then the decorating process starts all over again. They often recycle old bits and pieces of material from their discarded shell (a great example of environmental stewardship!).  In captivity, decorator crabs have been known to disrobe and grow a new shell when moved to a different tank and new environment, effectively creating a blank slate for its new camouflage masterpiece.

A graceful decorator crab (Oregonia gracilis) waving at you through the acrylic. This crab is decorated in red algae. Photo by Wendy Feltham

Our decorator crabs at PTMSC interact with guests and staff all the time. In nature, humans and decorator crabs have very little direct interaction, although there are some negative human impacts on their ecosystems. Surface runoff of oil, pesticides, sewage, and other chemicals can contribute to pollution of ocean ecosystems, truly making the crabs’ environment “dirty.” (Runoff pollution contributes to larger issues like ocean acidification.) As environmental stewards, we can all make eco-friendlier choices to reduce negative impact on the Salish Sea. The crabs might thank you for that.

Next time you visit our Marine Exhibit, I hope you take the time to search the tanks for our decorator crabs. I hope you experience the revelation that the rock you were staring at underneath the kelp, barnacles, and sponges is actually a crab, as it slowly crawls away to munch on some food or find some new artistic materials. I also hope you become so enamored that you sound just as silly as I do when I have one-sided conversations with them through the acrylic. While cleaning or feeding, I compliment them on their attention to detail in design. I like to think they appreciate the compliments on their labor, because much like an environmental steward, a crab’s work is never done.

Find out how you can "Go Blue" to protect the crabs and become an environmental steward on our site! ptmsc.org/about/go-blue-initiative

Follow us on other platforms to see more cool crabs! Instagram (@ ptmarinescictr) Facebook (Port Townsend Marine Science Center) Newsletter (Octopress Online)

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BROOKE ASKEY is the Citizen Science Educator and AmeriCorps member serving at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center

Citizen Science, Searching for Heroes and Hope

Sunday | December 11 | 3 pm

Citizen Science, Searching for Heroes and Hope

The Fort Worden ChapelAdmission: $10 ($5 for PTMSC members)

This lecture is presented by author Mary Ellen Hannibal who is a Bay Area writer and editor focusing on science and culture. She is a regular contributor to LIVESTRONG magazine; her writing has also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, Elle and Yoga Journal magazines among many other publications.

Ms. Hannibal's new book, Citizen Science, Heroes and Hope in a Time of Extinction was released in September 2016. Book sale and signing to follow lecture. Books will be $20 for PTMSC members, $28 for non members.

Lonely Abalone Seeks Life Partner

Young Abalone
Photo by Wendy Feltham

When you walk into the Marine Exhibit, it is like entering a different world. I have always been fascinated with the sea and all it has to offer. Growing up on the coast of Maine I spent my summers exploring every tide pool I could find. I have carried this fascination throughout my life. The Marine Exhibit allows you to peek into the tide pool and underwater environment. It gives me the same excitement I found in those childhood summers. Next to the Marine Exhibit is the classroom, a space many students have sat waiting and wiggling, before entering this different realm. One day last week, I opened the door and let the students enter this magical land. Their faces lit up with such energy and huge smiles. I told my coworker that I felt like Willie Wonka opening the doors to the chocolate factory. This fascination is something that many people have when it comes to the marine world. All of the creatures and plant life are full of stories, facts, and memories for the staff, volunteers, and visitors in the Marine Exhibit. One invertebrate, in particular, holds a special place in the hearts of many at the Marine Science Center.

The Pinto, or Northern, Abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana) is one of my favorite creatures in the Marine Exhibit here at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. The pinto abalone are marine snails found from Sitka, Alaska to Point Conception, California.  They are often referred to as, “the lonely abalone”. This name comes from the fact that their population is too small and spread out to reproduce successfully. Abalone use a reproductive strategy known as broadcast spawning that involves the male and female counterparts releasing eggs and sperm into the water. Abalone broadcast spawn between April and June. If successful reproduction occurs, the abalone will remain in a planktonic phase, floating in the ocean for 10-14 days before settling onto a rocky ocean floor.

As herbivores, pinto abalone scrape algae off rocks with their file-like tongue, known as a radula. As they grow larger they began to eat brown and red kelp;  whichever one they consume more of is reflected in the color of their shell.  Abalone have a number of predators, including sunflower stars, sea otters, some species of fish, and humans. To defend themselves, they use their muscular foot to stick to rocks and their shell as a shield. Abalone spend most of their time hidden among rocks.  As they grow, their shells become covered in a plethora of life, including algae and sponges, which makes for good camouflage. Since the 1990s, pinto abalone populations have declined more than 90% and they  have been a species of concern since 2004. The abalone population is in such great decline due to overharvesting. Although their foot is a delicacy , abalone fishing in Washington was outlawed in 1994. A great effort has been put into the restoration of pinto abalone in the Salish Sea.

In 2013, The Port Townsend Marine Science Center partnered with the Puget Sound Restoration Fund to help raise pinto abalone. We were  given 200 baby abalone,  no bigger than your thumbnail. One hundred of them were raised in a tank and the other half were raised in a structure resembling  a beehive that was submerged in water off of the dock.  Staff and volunteers took very special care of these young gastropods by feeding them three times a week and weighing and measuring them once a month.

Tagging the small abalone
Photo by Wendy Feltham

“The latter tasks weren’t always easy”, recalls volunteer and Board Member Wendy Feltham. The abalone would often stick to the surface they were being measured on and the only way to get them to move was by placing one of their predators close by. The sunflower star has a voracious appetite for pinto abalone. If you put a sunflower star in close proximity to the abalone they will let go of the surface they’re on. To help record data, some of the abalone were tagged.  The device used to tag them is the same one used to tag bees.

PTMSC volunteers Katherine Jensen and Sue Long with young abalone
Photo by Wendy Feltham

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center was able to keep twenty of these abalone for the Marine Exhibit. The other 180  were returned to the Puget Sound Restoration Fund facility. They were kept in tanks on site and eventually  returned to the Salish Sea. The Pinto Abalone is a unique creature, one that I was drawn to right away here at the Marine Science Center. They get so excited to eat with their tentacles waving in search of their green kelp goodies. Learning the story of the time spent to raise these invertebrates is one of the many ways the Port Townsend Marine Science continues to wow me. The work the Puget Sound Restoration Fund is doing to restore the pinto abalones’ populations is truly inspirational.

“It is still possible for us to keep an iconic and treasured species from blinking out—on our watch. Our goal at PSRF: to rebuild sustainable populations of the Salish Sea’s only native abalone—the mighty Haliotis kamtschatkana—so that, once again, pinto abalone can graze our subtidal waters and successfully reproduce in the wild.” -Puget Sound Restoration Fund. http://www.restorationfund.org/projects/pintoabalone

A present day abalone feeding
Photoby Brooke Askey

The pinto abalone are just one of the many amazing and fascinating creatures to be found in the Marine Exhibit. I look forward to continuing to be wowed  by the marine life which surrounds me here in the Salish Sea. I, too, feel like a kid in the chocolate factory when I enter the Marine Exhibit, both surprised and in awe of the fascinating underwater world.

Please consider making a gift today to support kids education, animals, and a healthy Salish Sea: ptmsc.org/get-involved/donate

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Sarah Croston is the Natural History and Volunteer Educator and an AmeriCorps member serving at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.

This Whale Sculpture Was Modeled After a Beached Orca

CANADIAN ARTIST KEN HALL BUILT LEGACY BASED ON 3D SCANS OF THE SKELETON OF HOPE, AN ORCA THAT DIED ON THE COAST OF WASHINGTON IN 2002

Originally published on http://www.smithsonianmag.com/

By Emily Frost

smithsonian.com 
November 18, 2016

When Ken Hall first knocked on his neighbors’ door, it wasn’t to borrow a cup of sugar or an egg. He came to ask for the remains of their rotting decks—he needed cedar wood and lots of it. 

They asked, “What’s it for?” Quite unexpectedly, he said, “I’m going to build a whale!”

Hall found himself in the midst of this story because of a shift in direction. After 15 years of building 3D worlds for computer games, he wanted to build something that could be touched and seen without a screen. But what?

LEGACY IS SCHEDULED TO BE ON DISPLAY AT THE ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE BEGINNING IN 2017 BEFORE EMBARKING ON AN INTERNATIONAL TOUR. (KEN HALL)

 

 

The Canadian artist knew he was going to create something big. Hall was drawn to large animals, especially those that had community and social structures, similar to what we know as humans. Hall found a story that caught his attention—it was the story of Hope, an orca that beached and died on the coast of Washington State in 2002. A necropsy found that the female animal contained the highest level of contaminants ever recorded in an orca, along with signs of significant bone loss and a bacterial infection. The Port Townsend Marine Science Center (PTMSC) led the effort behind the removal of Hope from the shore, and subsequent necropsy.

In 2011, the Idaho Virtualization Laboratory created a 3D scan of the skeleton, before it was put on display at PTMSC. Hall began to build prototype pieces based on the 3D data. He chose wood, and specifically cedar, as his medium. The cedar, Hall says, is an “homage to totem carving, and its role in passing knowledge to future generations,” honoring the traditional use of cedar by First Nations for totem poles in the Pacific Northwest. For it to go on display at various museums, the piece—which he named Legacy—would have to be made travel-ready, meaning it could be put up and taken down in a relatively short period of time, and displayed in a variety of ways based on the available space. Hall’s background in mechanical engineering came in handy at this point—“It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle” he says.

Once 11 of the 46 vertebrae were carved, Hall realized just how big of a project this would be—it took him six months of full-time fabrication to make all the pieces (there are over 200 bones that make up the sculpture). The sculpture was completed and put on display at the Dufferin County Museum & Archives in Ontario. Sometimes accompanied by projection lights that provide a water-like effect and orca vocalizations playing in the background, the finished piece gives visitors a feeling of being underwater.

That feeling is what Hall wanted to provide people walking through the exhibit—one that highlights our connections as humans to the Earth and our ecosystems, like Hope and her community in the Pacific.

In the case of Hope, a transient (also called Bigg’s killer whale), researchers weren’t able to point to one specific cause of death; however, contamination is certainly an issue for all orcas in the region. There are three distinct orca ecotypes, or populations, documented off the U.S. North Pacific coast—transient, resident and offshore. All three overlap in parts of their home range but have distinctive physical traits, behaviors and even genes. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the sub-population of Southern Resident killer whales are “among the most contaminated marine mammals in the world” and listed as endangered—only 78 individuals were counted in the population in 2014.

Contamination comes from a variety of sources ranging from legacy chemicals that are no longer used but persist in the environment (like DDT and PCBs), to chemicals that make up flame-retardants, found in things like carpets and furniture. Southern Resident Killer Whales are one of eight “highly at-risk species” that NOAA is drawing attention to in its “Species in the Spotlight” series. Lynn Barre, who leads the Seattle branch of NOAA’s Office of Protected Resources, is encouraged to hear about the art piece—“Even [orca] bones or skeleton as an art piece can inspire people to be [environmental] stewards.”

After its inaugural showing, Legacy has moved to other venues in Ontario and is scheduled to be on display at the Ontario Science Centre beginning in 2017 before embarking on an international tour. Over two million visitors have experienced Legacy to date.

“Legacy is a stunning example of how science and nature can influence art and how art can expand the appreciation of science,” said Mary Jane Conboy the director of science content and design at the Ontario Science Centre. “As Canada celebrates its 150 years in 2017, displaying Legacy at the Ontario Science Centre is particularly timely. This visually compelling piece asks our visitors to reflect on our current environmental practices and the changes we want to inspire for the future.”

Hall hopes to some day take the immersive exhibit to another level by incorporating his gaming background into the onsite experience. 3D virtual reality could evolve the sculptural art piece into an interactive installation: panning over the skeleton would allow visitors to see what the full animal looked like, not just an articulated skeleton. Zooming into an area could answer questions, like “how do whales breathe,” “what are the impacts of underwater noise on whales,” and “what is it like to 'see' with sonar?”

Hall’s environmentally focused pieces tell a story. He wants visitors to gain a better understanding of how humans can live in harmony with nature. “I want to try to make thinking and understanding cool again,” he says, and he intends to keep his focus on our connection to the world around us in the hope that we all become more empathetically aware of our surroundings.