He has only been the director of The Whale Museum for a few months, but Dr. Mike Kuperberg and his wife are already settling into the community and have set a few goals for the museum. “I’m reminded regularly how small and tight this community is. The people and place have been amazing. Everyone has been so warm and welcoming, supportive, greeting me and happy that I’m here,” Kuperberg said. “There seems to be a consensus that the Whale Museum is an important part of Friday Harbor and people want it to succeed.”

Originally served as an Odd Fellows Hall, the museum building was a space where community meetings took place and celebrations were held. Sitting proudly above the harbor, the orca mural on its front is one of the first things one sees when they arrive on the ferry. The museum has been a central part of the town since it opened in 1979, drawing tourists and locals alike. “So many islanders I’ve met told me they used to work here,” Kuperberg laughed. His challenge, and one of his goals, is to ensure the museum is fiscally sound, explaining, “It’s a non-profit so it can’t make money, but it can’t lose money, while also trying to figure out how to fulfill its mission.“

Kuperberg’s mother grew up in Washington, and many of his family members are scattered throughout the Pacific Northwest. Kuperberg himself was raised in Florida.He dreamed of being a scientist as a young boy, watching Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He had originally wanted to be a marine biologist, dive and explore the oceans’ depths and creatures in it, like his hero Cousteau. He did learn to freshwater dive. Diving in the Salish Sea would be difficult for him, being used to warmer climates, Kuperberg laughed. Rather than working in the field, his career took another path, leading him to become a program manager for the Department of Energy and Science. He funded ecosystem research to understand the relationship between energy policy and ecosystems. In 2015, the White House “borrowed” him for the Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he became director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The federal government spends, or used to spend, approximately $4.2 billion a year on Global Change Research. “You can think of Global Change Research as climate change,” Kuperberg said, “but it’s much more of a bigger set of information. Populations are changing, ecosystems are changing. Some of that is driven by human processes, but others are natural processes. The point was to study all of this, although the focus was climate change.”

The goal of Global was to coordinate with the different agencies, make sure they had what they needed and make sure the money was being used wisely. He loved the work but also was hitting retirement age, and with his mother, brother, daughter and granddaughter in the Pacific Northwest, he and his wife wanted to move closer to family. Being avid boaters, the islands seemed like a perfect fit.

With federal and state funding sources currently precarious, his challenge could become even more dire. To compound that, the federal funding for the museum’s Marine Mammal Stranding Network opted to disburse more money to fewer projects. The Stranding Network was not one. Having operated the program since 1981 (The SeaDoc Society began collaborating with the museum in 2002, and both organizations now help to run the network), and being too important of a program to let go, according to Kuperberg, the museum has continued funding it with help from the Revenue Group, and with help from the state.

“Most of the staffing and operational expenses, like the boat, are something we are supporting from the museum.”

For those unfamiliar with the Stranding Network, it is where one calls if a sick, injured or stranded marine mammal has been found. The museum’s website explains that staff and volunteers also work to research marine mammals of the Salish Sea and to reduce human impact on marine mammals. They “drive or boat to the location of the reported stranding, gather information on the animal, and make sure that people stay the required 100 yards away. If the animal is recently deceased, they collect it for a necropsy (animal autopsy).”

For those interested in learning more, visit https://whalemuseum.org/pages/marine-mammal-stranding-network.

“I’m a big fan of stories; I want to be able to tell The Whale Museum’s story. We are a physical museum, an education center, and the home of the Orca Adoption program. We are also Sound Watch and the Stranding Network,” Kuperberg said. That is a lot for the small but mighty staff. Some items that may be accomplished sooner rather than later, Kuperberg thought, would be updating exhibits and having regular docents to greet visitors and answer any questions.

Whatever the challenges the museum may have, the Southern Resident orcas have larger, more complex challenges.

“Conserving and protecting the whales is a bigger challenge because it’s a societal-wide question,” Kuperberg began,” I’m an ecologist by training. I’m a systems scientist. You can’t save the whales without saving the eelgrass, and the herring that live in the eelgrass, and [improving] the water quality that comes down from the creeks and rivers and on and on. You can’t. You can’t put the whales in a cage or have a boat escort them everywhere they go. They have to have abundant food, clean, quiet water.”

Education about endangered Southern Resident Orcas and their habitat is critical to what the Museum does, Kuperberg added. The Museum’s mission is to promote stewardship of whales and the Salish Sea ecosystem through education and research. While Kuperberg did not specify any particular research that he thought would be important, he did say, “It’s remarkable what we don’t know about them. Not surprisingly, they spend a lot of time underwater.” Humans, he continued, only see a limited facet of their lives – when they surface around people, with additional information gleaned from analyzing their scat, and performing necropsies on deceased whales that happened to be found. With that in mind, along with the Whale Museum’s story, Kuperberg would like to work closer with what he called sister organizations, the Center for Whale Research, Wild Orca, just to name a couple.

Overall, Kuperberg’s goal goes back to storytelling, and making sure people are aware of what the small but mighty staff does.. “I want people to know the Whale Museum is here, and there is an exciting group of people that want to make it something the community will continue to be proud of,” he said.