Wow, it has been the fastest summer yet! Kindergarten to 8th grade kids from across the country participated in two WhaleTimes’ virtual research missions. They danced to DNA, made vaquita wind socks, and created elephant seal tags. The kids also dazzled the Science Team members with their knowledge and challenged them with thought-provoking questions during the 30+ Skype™ sessions.

Our Creep into the DEEPEND Summer Camp program took kids to the deep sea in the Gulf of Mexico with the DEEPEND Science Team. They met cool animals and even cooler research and researchers while discovering  DEEPEND Consortium’s important deep-sea research.

Kids joined Patrick W. Robinson,  Dave Weller, Barbara Taylor,  Daniel Costa and their Science Teams from the UC-Santa Cruz, Costa Lab, UC Año Nuevo Island Reserve and Southwest Fisheries Science Center/NOAA (vaquita and gray whale research) as part of our Celebration of Conservation: Gray Whales, Elephant Seals, and Vaquita. Summer camp kids learned about the beautiful gray whale, the amazing elephant seal, and the shy vaquita. The kids heard the successful conservation stories of the elephant seal and gray whale. Conservation efforts that saved both species from extinction. Summer campers also learned that the vaquita’s conservation story is still being written. With less than 30 vaquita left, we don’t know if it’ll have a happy ending or not.

Through both WhaleTimes’ programs our summer camp kids learned two important lessons. 1) Everybody makes a difference when it comes to conservation; 2) Everyone can help save ocean animals by only buying and/or eating sustainably caught seafood (when you are hankering for seafood).

Thank you to our Science Team Members, volunteers, and the museums and science centers for making it another amazing summer!

• DEEPEND Research and Creep into the DEEPEND program funded by funded by Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) award number GOMRI2014-IV-914
• The Celebration of Conservation Elephant Seal Team’s research funded in part by: The Office of Naval Research, Joint Industry Program, Año Nuevo Reserve; gray whale and vaquita research supported by Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries. The education program portion funded by WhaleTimes and supported by volunteer time and effort from the Science Teams themselves and WhaleTimes’ volunteers.

Thank you to our museum and science centers for letting us make a splash at your summer camps!

If you missed your chance to join us at a summer camp near you, the program will be back next year.