RESTORATION HATCHERIES AND THE ORCA EDUCATION PROGRAM
Our life sized inflatable Orcas are a crowd-pleaser at any event we attend and we get to share information about the Orcas with people of all ages. As part of our outreach program, we bring our Orca Education Program to schools to present to students. This engages young kids in finding solutions and taking action to help solve some of the environmental problems we face today. We speak about some of the issues facing the Salish Sea and some of the solutions. Our education program is tailored to whichever age group we’re presenting to, from kindergarten to Gr. 12, and we typically see tremendous support for our program and many students go on to take action to further help salmon spawning-ground restoration.
We speak about restoration hatcheries which foster the indigenous salmon population of the river while working to restore the natural spawning grounds. There are about 9000 different populations of salmon along the coastline many of which need help to thrive. Restoration hatcheries preserve the wild genetic stock of each individual river population in their natural waters and release them into the estuaries.
Restoration of the salmon grounds begins at the watershed. Old-growth forests provide the best conditions for salmon streams to thrive, but many streams need restoration to create the conditions needed for salmon fry to survive. We support The Four Mile Creek Hatchery, which is working to restore the San Juan River in Port Renfrew. This is one of the few rivers that we can help which empties directly into the territory of the Southern Resident Pods. We also support the Peninsula Stream Society which restores salmon spawning grounds on Lower Vancouver Island.
We bring our inflatable Orcas to events which promote environmental awareness – each inflatable orca is modeled after an individual of the Southern Resident pods. We currently have 8 orcas in our pod, and eventually we will have one to represent each member of the Southern Residents.
We organize clean-ups of local beaches with students and volunteers and advocate for more environmentally-friendly containers and packaging in our society.
If you would like us to present the Orca Education Program to your school or group, contact us and we’ll see if we can do it.
