New interactive orca exhibit opens at Port Townsend Marine Science Center

‘Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home’ explores the history and challenges of Southern Resident orcas

The Port Townsend Marine Science is pleased to announce the Aug. 21 opening of a new exhibit, “Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home,” at its museum facility at Fort Worden State Park. The interactive exhibit explores the natural history of the orca species and the extreme challenges facing the Southern Resident orca families that frequent Puget Sound. The exhibit will be up until October 31st.

Based on the book of the same name co-published by The Seattle Times and nonprofit publisher Braided River, the special showing features captivating photography by Steve Ringman and others, and stories by author and Seattle Times journalist Lynda V. Mapes about the power, majesty and plight of two endangered – and intertwined -- species of the Salish Sea: Southern Resident killer whales and Chinook salmon.

 

“Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home” is a traveling exhibit that is touring Salish Sea marine centers in 2021-22. It complements the PTMSC’s permanent exhibit, “Learning from Orcas – The Story of Hope” at the PTMSC museum.

"We are grateful to Lynda Mapes, Braided River and The Seattle Times for bringing this complex story into focus,” said PTMSC Program Director Diane Quinn. “The writing, photographs and illustrations will reach visitors in a new way and help us all remember what's at stake for the orcas and for us."

Quinn said the exhibit is designed for all ages. For children there’s an orca rocker, a drawing and coloring table, children's books about orcas, a dorsal fin to measure one's relative height, model whale toys and an orca rope to show the size of adult and newborn orcas. While the children are engaged, parents can review the display panels, view the Seattle Times’ Hostile Waters webpage, and read newspaper reprints and excerpts from Mape's book. Also, a monitor will be running the orcasound.net website as well as a sound loop of orca recordings made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Janine Boire, PTMSC executive director, said the traveling exhibit is the result of a collaborative effort by the marine science centers around Puget Sound to support each other to achieve their common goals.

"This is what the collective is made for,” Boire said “Throughout the pandemic we've found ways to support each other. I can't imagine a more perfect next step for these organizations to take together."

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