Ignorance and indifference are the greatest threats to the Salish Sea but passion, science and art may be an effective antidote. That combination can be found in the just-released book “The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest,” and the film “The Unknown Sea: A Voyage on the Salish.”
The Salish Sea, a name that didn’t become official until 2009, includes the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Strait of Georgia, Possession Sound, Puget Sound, Hood Canal, and San Juan and Gulf islands, stretching from Olympia to Campbell River, British Columbia.
In some ways, the Salish Sea is a story of numbers: 4,642 miles of coastline, 419 islands, 2,133 feet maximum depth, species (38 mammal, 172 birds, 253 fish, two reptiles, more than 3,000 macro-invertebrates, the ones that you can see without a microscope), and two countries, Canada and the U.S.
The book and film do an excellent job of connecting the dots, stressing the hand-in-glove relationship between its inhabitants, including humans and their penchant for pollution.
Co-authors Joe Gaydos, director of SeaDoc; and Audrey Benedict, founder of Cloud Ridge Naturalists; and filmmaker Kevin Campion, Deep Green Wilderness, have deep ties to the sea.
Benedict’s ancestors settled on Maine’s tiny Monhegan Island in 1792. The biologist, sea kayaker and guide has spent much of her life studying islands and the seas around them. About five years ago, Cloud Ridge began offering a week-long program on the Salish Sea aboard the 76-foot Catalyst.
Campion, who graduated from Snohomish High School, said he wanted to be a scuba diver when he grew up. Now he’s the captain of his 64-foot yawl, Orion, a floating classroom for students.
Gaydos, a wildlife veterinarian, has been studying the wildlife of the Salish Sea for more than a decade, focusing SeaDoc’s efforts on ecosystem-level challenges.
Their lives crossed paths in the San Juan Islands. The book evolved from those relationships. Campion and Benedict became SeaDoc board members.
“We feel very strongly about this huge ecosystem in our backyard, about getting people connected and understanding the Salish Sea. We’ve all stepped outside our comfort zone to find different ways to deliver the message,” said filmmaker Campion.
The book offers the bizarre and beautiful, alien shapes and streamlined bodies, the invisible and obvious, swimmers and flyers and floaters, endangered and countless, mud flats and forests, orcas and dying sea stars. It’s all captured in more than 230 splendid images, which were selected from more than 6,000 contributed by more than 50 photographers. The words tie the whole thing together.
“Our vision for the Salish Sea book was, first and foremost, to convey our sense of wonder and love for this amazing inland sea and all that surrounds it,” Benedict said. “By distilling the magical essence of the Salish Sea in images and words, we hoped to portray the many ways that the sea and its watersheds are part of an interconnected web of life like no other on Earth.”
“We also wanted people to comprehend the breadth and magnitude of what is at risk if we continue to unravel the intricate threads that bind these precious ecosystems before we have even begun to understand their complexities,” Benedict said.
In “The Unknown Sea,” Campion takes viewers on a sailing trip in a vibrant ecosystem, touching on the historical, political and ecological ramifications when humans interact with the Salish Sea.
The idea was hatched during a marine-science education program for six teenagers when Campion realized that the message needed a wider audience.
Campion and his crew’s love and respect for the Salish Sea are evident, as is the fear of increased coal and oil traffic.
“It’s a very dynamic area when it comes to currents moving oil around. An oil spill would be catastrophic,” Campion said.
“The biggest threat to the Salish Sea is people’s lack of knowledge about the ecosystem,” he said. “People think of Puget Sound as an isolated body of water, and then policy decisions are made in isolation when it’s functioning as part of a larger ecosystem.”
“Ultimately,” Benedict said, “when our readers turn the last page, we want them to understand all the reasons why the more biologically diverse and healthy the natural world is, the better it will adapt to change and the greater will be its ability to take care of us.”
We are the Salish Sea.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
If you go
Kevin Campion, Audrey Benedict and Joe Gaydos will be at the free premiere of the 32-minute film “The Unknown Sea” and a presentation on the book “The Salish Sea” at 6:30 p.m. April 15 at the Jackson Center Wilderness Auditorium at Everett Community College.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
