2008 ANNUAL FUNDRAISER & UPDATE

Thursday, May 8, 2008
Social hour 6:00 - 7:20 p.m.
Presentation and video 7:20 - 8:00 p.m.

In an historic home in the Mount Baker neighborhood -
2601 Cascadia Avenue South, Seattle, WA
Google Map/Directions

Please RSVP
Please join us and invite your friends but do ask them to RSVP to events@cooperisland.org or call 206-365-6009.

The evening will include the premiere of a short International Polar Year video from Cooper Island taken by Passport to Knowledge and soon to be on National Geographic's Wild Chronicles on PBS.  As part of Passport to Knowledge's Polar-Palooza National Tour, George Divoky will be participating in presentations of "Stories from a Changing Planet" in Salt Lake City and Norman, Oklahoma in the middle of April.

2007 FIELD SUMMARY

The 2007 field season saw an unprecedented retreat and melt of the arctic pack ice that resulted in 23 percent less ice cover than the previous annual minimum. Oceanographers are now predicting an ice-free Arctic as early as 2013.

On Cooper Island, this meant a complete shift in prey for guillemots, from the ice-loving arctic cod to more open open-water fish that are less abundant and less desirable to the island's seabirds. It also meant we again had polar bears as regular visitors in August. Come to our event on May 8 and hear and see what we observed this past summer and what the future might hold for both Cooper Island and the rapidly melting Arctic.

Look for additional website updates and a link to the video in mid-May and also during this summer's field season since we may be witnessing another unprecedented retreat of the arctic pack ice.

Learn more about our research.