The Whale Museum

“The board of directors receives a copy of the form 990 to review before it is submitted.”

“The board of directors annually reviews conflict of interest statements.”

“The executive director's salary is determined by the board of directors. There has been no change in recent years.”

“Upon request, the whale museum will make its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements available to the public.”

“The whale museum welcomed 32,940 visitors, including families, school groups, and tours. Visitors received education and cultural experiences about the salish sea ecosystem and its wildlife. The museum completed preservation and accessibility projects to ensure the wellbeing of our visitors and collections: worked with the city of friday harbor to install an ada accessible ramp/sidewalk at the museum entrance. We upgraded the security system and installed a large scale hvac system. The hvac will help normalize temperatures/humidity in the exhibit hall, extending the life of our fragile specimens while also increasing visitor comfort. We improved and cataloged our extensive research library for continuing inclusion as a non-circulating reference collection for the san juan island library system.”

“Educational programs served more than 5,982 teachers, students, and lay naturalists through more than 216 programs, tours and workshops focused on marine science, local ecology and history. The museum held events including gear up/down workshops for naturalists, an earth day workshop, two pod nods, lectures, volunteer trainings, a workshop on winter birds of the san juan islands, and two marine naturalist training programs. In the summer of 2018, there were significant tragedies in the community of endangered orcas.with this news being aired worldwide, the whale museum was one of the first sources people turned to for information, gaining online followers and supporters. The orca adoption program provided education packets about individual members of the endangered southern resident orca community to 3,470 orca adopters. The monthly e-news was sent to 16,278 subscribers. The printed cetus newsletters were published spring and fall and sent to 3,300 museum members and associates.”

“The whale museum scientific research programs included soundwatch (education and research) which operated on the water from may-september for 87 days. Soundwatch spent 439 hours monitoring endangered marine mammals, 547 hours on the water, traveling 4,133 nautical miles, and contacted 1,551 people in educational outreach. The limekiln lighthouse research facility conducted seasound acoustics research (recording underwater sounds and whale vocalization) and streamed live via internet and local radio nearly 365 days. The marine mammal sightings network added 12,330 sightings to the sightings database via the whale hotline and other sources. The san juan county marine mammal stranding network responded to 204 stranding calls and conducted 157 field investigations. The museum held its 3rd annual research symposium.”