Saving Seattle’s Southern Resident Orcas

In the waters between Seattle and Vancouver B.C., the southern resident orcas are struggling to survive. Summer 2018 saw the death a three-year-old and newborn calf, who was then carried for 17 days by her mother, immediately spurred the Pacific Northwest into action. Some of the major issues orcas face are pollution, habitat degradation, boat traffic and noise, and declining salmon populations [2].

While we mourned for our orcas, many people feel it’s not urgent, it doesn’t affect them, or they can’t make a difference.

For conservation to be successful, we need to focus on conservation locally and personally [1]. Researched showed to improve community engagement in local conservation efforts, like the southern residents, we need to focus on experiential experiences [3]. This campaign created an experiential marketing strategy to encourage community engagement in orca conservation.

Engaging communities can also change people’s behaviors. Research showed social norms influenced people’s decision making more than learning new information [1]. Using an experiential marketing effectively engages the community by creating an immersive experience people feel personally involved in and connected with others in the community [3].

To reach the audience of over half a million Seattle residents, we partnered with the Center for Whale Research to create an underwater experience in the Westlake Station in downtown Seattle. We provided daily commuters with a shareable, lasting experience, designed to immerse them in the orca’s habitat.

The experience took daily commuters through the southern resident’s underwater habitat using projectors of the southern residents. Commuters would hear the orca’s unique dialect throughout the station. To demonstrate the impact of humans on orcas, we set up different loops of footage and remastered video. Onlookers watched the orcas catch Chinook salmon, a preferred food, until the fish ran out. When a bus or train approached the station, the orcas swam away to show how the higher concentration and proximity of boats interfere with orcas using their echolocation to hunt prey. We also created an interactive trashcan to project items people threw away and how their trash ends up in the orca’s habitat.