Event Details
When:
Thu, Jan 22, 2026, 4:30pm - 5:20pm
Location:
Online: Zoom
In-Person at WWU:
Academic West 204
Price:
Free
Brought to you by:
Salish Sea Institute, College of the Environment, The Foundation for WWU & Alumni
Description
For around thirty million years, basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) have filter-fed on plankton across Earth’s ocean. They once gathered in aggregations of hundreds (some estimate thousands) on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and individuals were common throughout the Salish Sea until an eradication program sponsored by the Canadian government in the 1950s-60s drove the species to near extinction. This talk provides an overview of the historical population data and changing cultural attitudes toward basking sharks in the Salish Sea and greater Northeast Pacific, and lays out the possibilities for conservation and recovery.
The Environmental Speaker Series is free and open to the public. Talks are held each Thursday at 4:30pm in Academic Instructional Center West, room 204. Join us at WWU or online on Zoom!
Photo caption: Basking shark caught by fishermen in Rivers Inlet, BC, Canada, July 1901. BC Archives.
Featuring:
Kelly’s research and teaching focus on the historical and cultural dimensions of marine ecology. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area but spent every summer in a cabin with no electricity or running water on a small island in the Salish Sea, where she developed a passionate curiosity about marine ecosystems and how humans live with our one global ocean.
Her PhD at the University of London considered how depictions of marine life in the nineteenth-century unsettled British colonialism. Since then, she’s taught and conducted research at sea and on multiple coasts, including as Visiting Assistant Professor at the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Ocean and Coastal Studies Program and Research Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich. Outside the classroom or the archive, you can find her underwater in the Salish Sea all year round. Kelly is also a Salish Sea Institute Fellow.
Publications and syllabi at kellypbushnell.com.
Questions and Accommodations
- Your point of contact for this event is The Foundation for WWU & Alumni. Call (360) 650-3353 or email Alumni@wwu.edu.
- Advance notice for disability accommodations and special needs is appreciated. Please mention your needs when registering.
- There will be auto-captions for the Zoom webinar.
Visitor Parking at WWU on Weekdays
- Mon-Fri, 7:00am-4:30pm: limited paid parking is available at the south C lots and north 6V and 7G lots.
- Purchase your permit at the lot pay stations or use the Parkmobile app.
- More parking details for campus visitors are available online.
Parking at WWU on Weekdays for Visitors with Disabilities
- Mon-Fri, 7:00am-4:30pm: both a WWU permit and state disability placard are needed.
- Purchase your permit at the pay stations in lot C or 6V or use the Parkmobile app (use Zone 1200). This allows parking in any disability space. If these are full, you can use a non-reserved space nearby.
- More parking details for campus visitors with disabilities are available online.
The views expressed by our speakers do not necessarily reflect those of Western Washington University.
