“Under colonization, the total mass of pink salmon and chum salmon dropped by 40 percent. Forage fish — such as herring, eulachon, surf smelt, and anchovy — declined by 99 percent, and sturgeon were nearly wiped out.” e360.yale.edu/digest/pacif...

This is… a bad take. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Some quiet underwater moments from this week of good viz: perennial fave ratfish, Taylor’s sea hares so massive they weigh down their blades of eelgrass, and so many jellies that the entire surface layer felt like a big soft invisible ball pit.

Yes. I am right. I am seeing how Chat GPT is ruining students critical thinking and writing skills in real time. It is not the future. It is a tool designed to render the populace helpless, to make people doubt their innate intelligence, and to foster overreliance on technology.

I finished The Buffalo Hunter Hunter a few weeks ago— it’s absolutely extraordinary.

Ok we do have one king in Seattle. #ichiro #nokings

Seattle showing up as usual! 70,000 on this gorgeous PNW day. 🌲🌊✊ (The monorail even gave us a beepbeep and everyone lost their minds 😹💙) #nokings #noICE

#BlackHistoryMonth Reading "What does it mean to paint slavery iconography onto a pair of walrus tusks, and what is at stake in considering the Arctic as a landscape connected to Black enslavement?" - Bart Pushaw niche-canada.org/2022/09/01/f... #envhist #arthistory #arctic

Along the lines of how one sour patch kid would kill a pilgrim… (Epigraph to Ch. 44: “I would not creep along the coast, but steer / Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars.”)

Oof.

What’s the best fish in the Salish Sea, and why is it the Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker (Eumicrotremus orbis)?

Today I'm tuned into this symposium on the North Pacific Right Whale (one of the world's rarest and most endangered whales) facilitated by the wonderful folks at @nprightwhale.bsky.social! www.northpacificrightwhale.org/symposium 🐋

Spectacular postdoc opportunity at WHOI, in science OR policy, generally #coastal or specifically #Arctic!

It’s the first day of Winter Quarter and I’ve got the best classroom in town! BIOL110 is my interdisciplinary Salish Sea marine bio course, anchored in ecology but with an arts/hum kaleidoscope for a lens. And happy to be at Highline supporting an 80% BIPOC and 60% first-generation student body!

1. Dolphins swirling around us in the Red Sea 2. Hairy frogfish doing “the yawn” in Indo (then a 💩) 🤦‍♀️ 3. Humpback mum and calf in the ice in Greenland 4. Polar bear mum grabbing a seal for her cubs in Nunavut 5. Basking sharks, a leatherback, and my first right whale from the deck of SSV Cramer!

Since July, we’ve been visiting this enormous GPO (Giant Pacific #Octopus, Enteroctopus dofleini) caring for her eggs in her den… (1/5)

ᐅᖓᒋᕙᒋᑦ 💙 Christmas Eve marked five years since we lost Kelly Amaujaq Fraser. She was a fiercely caring and loyal friend, a brilliant artist, teacher, activist and musician who reached far beyond the Arctic. (1/3)

My all-time favorite, by Tim Andraka. Season’s eatings, and toothy kisses under the abyss-tletoe from me and mine to you and yours!

Arctic and Antarctic folks! I’m in this one along with a bunch of way ❄️cooler❄️ (sorry) people.

Rest in power Nikki Giovanni 💙

Today’s whimsical holiday sea-scene: Grunt Sculpin (Rhamphocottus richardsonii) looking skyward in front of Strawberry Anemones (Actinia fragacea). These colors look like they belong in the tropics, but they’re right here in the Salish Sea in 51F water! #fishmas #marinelife

🚨 New basking #shark paper alert: "High-emission scenarios predict northward shift in basking shark habitats" in the N. hemisphere, incl. to sub-Arctic waters. ⬇️ (PS Join me at global #baskingshark conference in Galway this May!) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @whysharksmatter.bsky.social

Melibe leonina (hooded, a.k.a lion’s mane #nudibranch) on my dive in the front yard today. This luminous loogie gulps plankton with rows of cirri on its oral hood and, as you can see, the current is bringing plenty (and keeping us both rockin and rollin!) #marinelife

I wanted to share a recent paper out from some good friends Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Jeffrey J. Brooks, Ph.D. and Hillary Renick. The benefits of #Indigenous-led social #science: A mindset for #Arctic #sustainability It is free to access here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“Women always blame their bodies, men just blame the gear.” On scuba, and bodies, and belonging: Yesterday we lost Kelleen Lum, one of the best dive instructors (and instructor of instructors) this blue planet has ever known. I want to share one of the many profound things she said to me. 1/

Started my day at Pacific Marine Expo here in Seattle with three excellent panels: 🔊 Quiet Sound’s work to lessen the impact of vessel noise on SRKWs 🦦 Seaweed’s integration into the global blue economy ⛴️ Marine decarbonization (esp. alternative fuels)

Thanks @tessahill.bsky.social for creating this one! 🌏🌊💪💙 go.bsky.app/7MdiLgo

One can definitely sympathize with Bulkington who steps foot back in America after four years at sea, looks around, and immediately goes back to sea.

Hi! I'm Kelly, aka Dr. Kelpy to my students. I teach and write about ocean biodiversity from a historical/cultural perspective, combining archival research with my underwater experience as a dive pro to help connect people to our one global ocean.