Salish Splash

Want to join the Salish Splash Challenge?

1. RSVP for the Salish Splash you’re attending: Seattle, Bellingham, San Juan Island, Tacoma
2. Print out the Salish Splash Challenge sign and write in the name of the person you would like to challenge.
3. Take a photo with the sign and post it to social media using #SalishSplash.  Remember to tag the person you’re challenging! See some examples from last year: Jacques White, Will Hall, Mindy Roberts.
4. Show up on June 13 to Golden Gardens Park, Seattle, or one of our partner locations, ready to splash!

Bring something to splash in, plus aqua socks or other protective footwear. We will provide all the participants who were challenged with hot beverages, food, and live music by Dana Lyons who is on his Rise for the Orcas Tour.

Share the event with friends on Facebook.

Partners are also organizing satellite events around the Salish Sea, so if you can’t make it to Seattle, please splash at one of our satellite locations in Tacoma, Bellingham, or San Juans (contact rein@wecprotects.org for details).

All four Orca Recovery priority bills passed the Washington State Legislature this year, including salmon habitat recovery, oil spill prevention, vessel noise and disturbance, reducing toxic pollution.

This package represents recommendations put forward by Governor Inslee’s Orca Recovery Task Force last November that brought together experts and advocates from across the state to find solutions to save resident orcas and restore Salish Sea.

Bills passed:

• • Protecting habitat (HB 1579): Supports chinook salmon and forage fish populations by protecting habitat and reducing invasive predatory species
  • Preventing oil spills (HB 1578): Extends proven safeguards to all vessels carrying crude oil by establishing zone-based tug escort requirements for oil-laden vessels in the waters around the San Juan Islands
  • Reducing vessel noise and disturbance (2SSB 5577): Reduces vessel speed to 7 knots within half nautical mile and increases the vessel buffer zone around orcas so they can more easily find prey, institutes commercial whale watch licensing and fees, and initiates process to identify safe whalewatching around Southern Resident orcas
  • Reducing sources of toxic pollution (SSB 5135): Prevents toxic pollution by addressing the use of classes of chemicals that are of particular concern to sensitive species like orcas and vulnerable populations like kids
  • Toxic site clean-up: The legislature also updated and stabilized funding — paid for by polluters — to clean up toxic sites, reduce stormwater runoff, and prevent toxic chemicals from impacting our health and the environment with stabilized funding for the state’s Model Toxic Control Act. Environmentalists, frontline communities, and local governments have called for these changes for more than a decade.