Salish Sea Hero: Layla Cahalan — Junior SeaDoctors

Layla Cahalan of Orcas Island displays her hand-made, original art on canvas bags. She is selling these bags to raise awareness of the sea and donating 100% of her earnings to SeaDoc Society to help heal the sea she loves.

The Salish Sea has another hero and so does SeaDoc Society, in particular! When Team SeaDoc discovered that 7-year-old Layla Cahalan, a part-time resident of Orcas Island, was creating re-usable, canvas bags with original Salish Sea creature art on them to sell, we were impressed. When we learned that she was donating 100% of her sales to SeaDoc Society to help protect the sea creatures she loves, we were humbled and amazed!

We just had to know - what kind of young lady would take such selfless actions to help heal the sea. So, I had a Zoom meeting with Layla and her mom, Megan and had a great time learning! Here are a few questions I asked and what Layla shared:

What is your favorite Salish Sea memory?

When I was 4 years old we saw a pod of orcas from Orcas Island down at the beach from Olga.

What do you love about the sea?

Layla and friend being Nature Detectives inspect tidepool life in a fish bowl.

I love all of the sea animals. Once we saw a teeny tiny green fish. We once saw sea stars. I love to see all the little sea anemones, I love the tide pools. I got to pet a seal and a sea lion at Sea World in San Diego. I really love the octopuses we want to see octopuses. We love to put jelly fish back in the ocean.

Why is it important to keep sea creatures healthy?

I really think that if we ever let people put trash in the ocean I just really want to clean it up. I want the animals to be more healthy so I get more chances to see them alive in the wild when I go scuba diving when I’m 20, when I’m 40, when I’m 8…I just want to see them my whole life.

What can kids do on land to help the sea?

Layla and her brother, Addi, show the trash they picked up from the beach at Obstruction Pass State Park, Orcas Island, WA.

Two days ago at Obstruction Pass State Park, me and my brother looked around and the beach was full with kelp. We noticed trash all over. We started to pick it up and put it in a pile and we just kept picking it up and picking it up. We saw little pieces but those were a little bit harder to get. That is for sure one thing.

What is the Sea Hope project?

I go on a link with my friends kind of like what we’re doing now. I have 4 friends. One lives in Colorado, one lives in Florida, and one lives in Ellensburg and I’ve lived in each place.

Megan, Layla’s mom added: They started an online club so she could still have play dates during the pandemic.

One day we got bags and I started thinking about what I could sell to make money for SeaDoc. I love making and drawing the bags. I practice on a piece of paper then cut it out, then trace it on the bag in pencil then trace my marker over the line. Then I look at a picture from a book about sea animals called Ocean Anatomy Sketch Book. I just love to draw from this kind of book.

The reason I named it Sea Hope is I’m not doing it about the land. I hope I see the sea and all the animals, so I just called it Sea Hope.

These are just four of the many bags Layla has created. She has lovely great blue herons, jellyfish, and more.

Layla practices drawing sea life using the illustrations in Ocean Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the World Under the Sea by Rothman and Niekrasz before she draws them onto her bags.

Why did you choose to give your earnings to SeaDoc Society?

I wanted to give it to a National Park or a I wanted to start raising money for a sea place here because I love to go down to see the ocean here. We were looking it up and found SeaDoc Society. Then I just started doing it. I really want to be a marine biologist when I grow up and I might work here when I grow up. I know that SeaDoc wants the animals to live longer and help them survive.

Bag update: My goal for bag orders was to make 20 bags and give 100% to SeaDoc. (Currently she has done 37 bags over 8 months!) ! Will keep going through the summer.

Her parents offered to double the donation amount and even her little brother is pitching in $5.

Needless to say, Team SeaDoc members put in a large order for ourselves. Layla and Megan set up an email account in case anyone else would like to purchase a bag. The email account is seahope4seadoc@gmail.com.

What can we say, but THANK YOU LAYLA! You are a true Salish Sea Hero and I believe you will inspire more wonderful heroes throughout the Salish Sea and beyond!