Salish Sea Heroes: Heart of the Salish Sea Students
Salt Spring Elementary students identify a clam. Can you tell which kind this is? Hint: it has a gaping shell and compared to the small clam species, seems as big as a horse. Image by Katharine Byers
There are so many Salish Sea Heroes this month that we couldn’t feature just one, but 291 instead! These are students whose lives revolve around the very heart of the Salish Sea, the San Juan and Gulf Islands of Washington and British Columbia.
These kids, teachers, and community partners participated in the Heart of the Salish Sea Project, piloting the Explore the Salish Sea curriculum throughout this school year, a near-guaranteed route to heroship (heroness? herohood?).
The curriculum supports kids and their teachers to become Nature Detectives and sleuth out a mystery or problem in their local ecosystem, research the issue through Western and Indigenous science, then take sea-healing action based on the evidence they reveal. Check out their detective work and heroes projects here!
Salish Sea Heroes: Swinomish Indian Tribal Community Youth, Layliana, Kason, and Kiarra
Research: Science, engineering, caretaking, and cultural practices of ancient clam gardens
Salish Sea Heroes Project: Visit to connect with WSANEC First Nations relatives and tour and tend the clam garden on Russell Island
Community Partners: Swinomish Community Environmental Health, Swinomish Fisheries (Shellfish), Pauquachin First Nation, Parks Canada, Lorne Underwood, Tsawout First Nation/Tseycum Marine Stewardship, Parks Canada
Youth and community members and staff from Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Pauquachin and Tsawout First Nations, and Parks Canada help tend and restore an ancient clam garden near Salt Spring Island, BC. Photo by Jamie Donatuto
Friends from Salt Spring Elementary investigate some five-ribbed kelp on Salt Spring Island.
Salish Sea Heroes: Salt Spring Elementary grades 3/4 and 5/6 students in Gail Bryn-Jones and Katharine Byers Nature-Based Learning classes
Research: Ocean acidification effects on shellfish and how clam gardens reshape a shoreline and increase biodiversity.
Salish Sea Heroes Project: Clam garden tending and creating marine ecology interpretive signs for a local, harbourside park.
Community Partners: Parks Canada, Archaeologist Nicole Smith, Tsartlip First Nations elder, Carl Olsen, Transition Salt Spring, Diver Ann Donahue, Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, Country Grocer, Salt Spring Island Rotary and Capital Regional District*
A sample of an interpretive sign design by Salt Spring Elementary students. Signs will line a path in a local, harbourside park next fall.
Salish Sea Heroes: Friday Harbor Elementary 4th Graders in Susan Kareken’s STEM classes
Research: Water quality testing of freshwater flowing into the sea and a beach seine survey of nearshore fish
Salish Sea Heroes Project: Published a hard-cover book for the community about cleaning up the Salish Sea for the health of fish and people
Community Partners: University of Washington Friday Harbor Labs, especially Michelle Herko
Educational brochure for waterfront landowners and visitors about how to keep/make safe spawning beaches for forage fish, like surf smelt, which feed salmon, which feed orcas, … Brochure by Lopez Elementary 5th Grade.
Salish Sea Heroes: Lopez Elementary 4th and 5th graders in Lorri Swanson and Becca Hamilton’s classes
Research: Comparative forage fish surveys on 2 beaches, 1 natural, 1 with built structures
Salish Sea Heroes Project: Trifold brochure for waterfront landowners and tourists, describing how to improve beaches for forage fish spawning habitat
Community Partners: Friends of the San Juans, SeaDoc Society
Katherine from Friends of the San Juans, assists Lopez Elementary students with “winnowing” beach sand to separate surf smelt fish eggs from the sand for counting; a process similar to gold panning. Photo by Mira Lutz Castle, SeaDoc Society
Orcas Island Elementary 5th graders collect stormwater for testing from the main outflow pipe in Eastsound. This water passes through a constructed wetland before it empties into the sea. Photo by Kim Malo
Salish Sea Heroes: Orcas Island Elementary 5th graders in Kim Malo’s class and middle schoolers in Laura Tidwell’s Marine Science class
Research: First Foods of Salish Sea shorelines and stormwater quality before vs. after the Eastsound constructed wetland (a built water filtration system using a wetland to remove particles and pollution from stormwater before it empties into the sea)
Salish Sea Heroes Projects: There were many!
Here are a few:
Orcas Island Middle School’s Marine Science students conducted multiple projects to decrease pollution going into the sea in Eastsound and even globally. Photos by Laura Tidwell
Posters, suggesting checking and fixing car engine oil leaks placed on cars
Beach and town clean-ups x 2
Letters and phone calls to executives of corporations, like Nestle, who use single use plastics in their wrappers and bottles with requests to use alternative packaging
Tree-planting
Community Partners: Orcas Island Community Foundation, SeaDoc Society
Thank you to all of these official Salish Sea Heroes. Your critical thinking, creative problem-solving, culture revitalization, and love for the Salish Sea and all our relations have filled our hearts with hope. Together we can heal the sea!