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. A 2% cost of living salary increase was applied in 2019 from 2018 salary level.”

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

“The whale museum saw over 30,000 visitors, from every continent except antarctica. The museum's gallery of whales continues to be an important focal point in disseminating our message of conservation and stewardship of the salish sea and its wildlife to our visitors. The gallery hosted a celebration of the museum's 40th anniversary; installed a short-term interactive exhibit after three announced deaths in the srkw community; and installed the display of a pacific white sided dolphin skeleton, a joint effort between the curator, local artist matthew palmer, and former twm curator albert shepherd. Facilities projects increased and maintained accessibility, usability, and comfort for visitors, researchers, and staff. The museum made it upgrades to help safeguard the security of our computer systems, information, and research. Additionally, the installation of a drinking fountain/bottle filling station fulfilled a long held goal to increase visitor comfort in the museum and reduce plastic waste in the ecosystem.”

“Educational programs served more than 5,382 teachers, students, and lay naturalists through more than 188 programs, tours and workshops focused on marine science, local ecology and history. The museum held events including gear up/down workshops for naturalists, a 24- hour hazwoper training, an in-depth elwha river/salmon workshop, two pod nods; and lectures, volunteer trainings, a workshop on winter birds of the san juan islands, and two marine naturalist training programs. The orca adoption program provided education packets about individual members of the endangered southern resident orca community to 2,931 orca adopters. The monthly e-news was sent on average to 16,347 subscribers. The printed cetus newsletters were published spring and fall and sent to 2,853 museum members and associates. 141,743 in donations was received from 790 generous contributors.”

“The whale museum scientific research programs included soundwatch (education and research) which operated on the water from may-september for 74 days. Soundwatch spent 290 hours monitoring endangered marine mammals, 771 hours on the water traveling 4,688 nautical miles, and contacted 1,796 people in educational outreach. San juan county marine mammal stranding network (sjcmmsn) responded to 199 stranding calls, completed 116 field investigations, and conducted 26 necropsies on deceased marine mammals. Sjcmmsn presented in front of local classrooms, presented public "dock talks", and hosted multiple large whale disentanglement trainings. The marine mammal sightings network added nearly 6,000 sightings entries to the sightings database via the whale hotline and other sources. A paper titled "tahlequah's story: documentation of epimeletic behavior in southern resident killer whale j35" was submitted to marine mammal science. A paper titled "maximizing surveillance through spatial characterization of marine mammal stranding hot spots" was published in marine mammal science march 2019.”