Upcoming Whatcom Marine Research Symposium to inform community about local environmental research

On Wednesday, February 23, the Whatcom Watersheds Information Network (WWIN) will host a free, virtual Whatcom Marine Research Symposium. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will include multiple scientists and Nooksack and Lummi speakers.

The event is to inform the community about experts’ research on current environmental conditions in Whatcom County, such as the invasive European green crabs and intertidal monitoring in the Cherry Point area. Other topics include effects of targeted acoustic startle technology on foraging harbor seals, the impact of northern anchovies on the Salish Sea food web and natural resource management during climate change.

Nooksack Indian Tribe elder and storyteller Tammy Cooper-Woodrich and Rena Priest, Washington state poet laureate and Lummi Nation member, will be keynote speakers at the
symposium.

“Our identities are in the land and resources,” Cooper-Woodrich said. “Our survival depends on the reclamation of our cultural preservation of the land of the watersheds.”

Cooper-Woodrich said networking is the key to survival of the watershed – which also means the survival of tribes. She will be storytelling at the symposium and hopes people understand the underlying importance of keeping tribes at the table. 

Blaine and Birch Bay residents are encouraged to attend the symposium because they live on the Whatcom County shoreline, said Austin Rose, a Whatcom County Marine Resource Committee staff member.

 Community outreach is important because it allows experts to highlight climate and watershed issues to the general public, Rose said. 

Most of the symposium speakers will be researchers, and stakeholders in research and
development.

“The land is sacred to our people,” Cooper-Woodrich said. “We want to make sure it is done in a good way.”

For event details and registration, visit whatcomwin.org.