ACS Educational Programs

WHALEWATCH PROGRAM
The most visible public outreach program is the Whalewatch naturalist and lecturer training program that is co-sponsored by ACS Los Angeles Chapter and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, California. Through this program, nearly 200 naturalists are trained, tested, and dispatched to whale watching boats and classrooms in the Southern California area each year. The City of Los Angeles estimates that our program reaches about 50,000 local area school children, annually in the classroom and on whale watching field trips. These trips give students and adults an opportunity to reconnect with nature - "the school of the heart" as Beethoven called it - and to transcend cultural and language barriers during inspirational firsthand encounters with whales and dolphins in their natural habitat.

The Whalewatch Program has operated for 32 years and is currently self-supporting. During the January through March 2002 season, ACS volunteers logged 7,083 hours, went out on 657 boat trips and gave 106 lectures to help people understand cetaceans and the complex issues that threaten our fragile planet and all its inhabitants. For many, whale watching is the first step that inspires renewed commitment to stewardship of natural resources and respect for diversity in people, species, and beliefs.

WHALE WATCHING TRIPS
In addition to the Whalewatch trips mentioned above for children, teens, adults and seniors, ACS sponsors annual day cruises around Santa Catalina Island, and in the nutrient-rich Santa Barbara Channel where rare blue whales and humpbacks come to feed in close proximity to the boat.

For those who want to get REALLY close and enjoy a unique opportunity to meet the "friendly" gray whales and their newborn calves, ACS sponsors longer trips to the lagoons of Baja California, Mexico. This is the place where the whales mate, give birth, and nurture their young before beginning a 7,000-mile journey from Baja to their Arctic feeding grounds in the Bering Sea.

CETACEAN CURRICULUM
For over 25 years, the ACS Gray Whale Teaching Kit for K-12 students has been in demand by teachers who incorporate studies of the marine environment into their curriculum. In response to numerous requests to provide a kit that included more species than the gray whale (which only occurs off the western coast of North America), ACS updated and expanded the original kit into a new Cetacean Curriculum.

One popular item is the Cetacean Comparison Chart showing the scientific names and relative sizes of various species as compared to humans, elephants and dinosaurs.

Dr. John Heyning, Deputy Director of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (who participated in the ACS Whalewatch program as a teenager and is still a guest lecturer), was quoted in the news recently when he announced the discovery of a new species of beaked whale. Heyning and other experts on the ACS Scientific Advisory Panel ensure that all educational materials - including this chart that is now in its third edition - are updated as needed.

Thanks to a partnership with the Endangered Species Chocolate Company, ACS has produced a new updated version of the poster-size Cetacean Comparison Chart. This valuable tool is found in hundreds of schools, on whale watching boats, in gift shops, museums and aquaria, and wherever there is a discussion of whales, dolphins and porpoises. By popular demand, ACS is initiating a new Spanish language version of the chart as well.

WHALE AND DOLPHIN FACT PACKS
ACS produces Whale and Dolphin Fact Packs which include fact sheets on the 28 most common (of 80 total known) species of cetaceans. Fact sheets are provided free of charge on our web site, as handouts on boats, in classrooms, at ACS monthly meetings, whale festivals, and street fairs. Each fact sheet provides concise information on one species, including a distribution map, feeding patterns, biology, behavior, and a bibliography for additional research. Experts in marine biology and marine mammal research review the fact sheets for accuracy and update them periodically as changes become necessary. ACS grants permission to copy the sheets provided they are distributed for free, are used for educational purposes, and are not altered in any way.

Whalewatcher - THE ACS JOURNAL
A subscription to Whalewatcher is one of the benefits of ACS membership. Thousands of non-members also enjoy reading it in the permanent collections of prominent academic institutions and public libraries. The journal contains illustrated feature articles by marine scientists, human-interest stories, information on world events, book reviews, artwork, as well as information on ACS conferences and activities. Whalewatcher plays an essential role in educating our constituents to be knowledgeable advocates about our policies and the world events that affect cetacean survival. It also enables ACS to meet the growing needs of a global audience of educators, scientists, students and others who depend on ACS for scientific excellence and thought-provoking inspiration.

ACS WEB SITE AT www.ACSonline.org
The ACS web site enables people everywhere to obtain information that is accurate and reliable (the Smithsonian Institution has a link to the our site). www.ACSonline.org, www.dolphinInfo.info, www.whaleInfo.info, and www.whaleAndDolphin.info are all the same web site It contains whale and dolphin fact sheets and other educational materials, monthly conservation and research reports, letters of policy support and opposition, issues and alerts about current events and what people can do about them, and links to ACS chapter web sites and other conservation sites. The web site enables ACS to educate the world community about the principles of conservation by covering topics that span a universe of complex issues involving ecosystem management, loss of habitat, endangered species, cultural differences, the power of art, and the problems of whaling.