About the Class
| Taught By Ardi Kveven |
For the past 23 years, ORCA students have asked and attempted to answer their own original questions about the Salish Sea. This innovative work, engaging students in experimental research in the Snohomish River Estuary, led to four National Science Foundation grants totaling nearly 1.5 million dollars, including one for a custom designed 34-foot research vessel, the R/V Phocoena. Ardi serves as the captain of the Phocoena (with a US Coast Guard 100-ton Master’s License) and has over 500 days on the water with students and the local wildlife.
Ardi’s session for Sound Waters University will focus on tracing life through the Salish Sea through the Sounders (the returning gray whales). ORCA student questions have evolved to incorporate the current science and emerging tools of how to study whales less invasively. Ardi will share how students have utilized geospatial studies on gray whales and the most recent discoveries from their feeding pits using a drone.
| About Ardi Kveven |
Ardi Kveven is the Founder and Executive Director of the Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA), an innovative early-college program at Everett Community College. Ardi has served for ten years as a board member for the SeaDoc Society, a local organization focused on the health of wildlife of the Salish Sea and is the current board chair. She is also the treasurer of the Braided River board.
