Bright Extinction and a Vision of Hope

The Whale Museum’s Summer Lecture Series continues on July 17 at 7:00 PM PT with a presentation from Oceans Initiative’s Dr. Rob Williams! Dr. Williams will be giving a presentation entitled “Bright Extinction and a Vision of Hope: Signs of an accelerating decline in Southern Resident killer whales, and what we can do now to start turning it around.”

This event is free and open to the public. You can catch it in-person at TWM or it will be streaming live on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/live/-GA506pc8_U .

The invisible loss of biodiversity before species has been identified and described in scientific literature has been termed, memorably, dark extinction. Dr. Williams coined the phrase “Bright Extinction” to describe its opposite: a decline in a well-studied population when the threats are well documented. The critically endangered Southern Resident killer whale population is one of the most well-studied marine mammals on the planet. Why are they not recovering? Dr. Williams will present findings from a recent collaborative effort to understand why. The talk will end with a vision of what we can all do to rebuild the natural resilience of our iconic orcas to human-caused stressors, and to prevent the extinction of this iconic population.

Dr. Williams is Chief Scientist and co-founder of Oceans Initiative, a conservation research nonprofit. He works to find creative solutions to address some of the world’s most pressing marine conservation issues. Rob’s work on killer whales began in Johnstone Strait, British Columbia nearly 30 years ago and continues today to identify and advance innovative solutions to support Southern Resident Killer Whale recovery. A Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, Rob is committed to advancing our understanding on a diverse set of marine conservation issues including biodiversity assessments, Marine Protected Areas, fisheries bycatch, ocean noise, ship strikes, and deep-sea mining.

You may also like the following events from The Whale Museum:

• This Saturday, 12th July, 04:00 pm, TWM 2025 Summer Hybrid Marine Naturalist Training Program in Friday Harbor, Washington
• Next month, 7th August, 09:00 am, 2025 Junior Marine Scientist Camp in Friday Harbor

Also check out other Arts events in Friday Harbor, Literary Art events in Friday Harbor.