Beach Log D ECEMBER 2008 Education, Research, Stewardship WSU Beach Watchers P. O. Box 5000 Coupeville WA 98239 360-679-7391 ; 321-5111 or 629-4522 Ext. 7391 FAX 360-678-4120 Camano Office: 121 N. East Camano Dr., Camano Island, WA 98282, 387-3443 ext. 258, email:
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[email protected] Web address: www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu Salty Lives Salty the sea lion, at least his bones, still thrives along the shoreline of Camano Island. The 2002 Beach Watchers class rearticulated the 600 pound California sea lion (Zalophus Californiaus) for an educational display at the Cama Beach State Park visitor center. After discovering Salty dead on one of Camano's beaches, the 2002 Beach Watchers class took on Salty's revival as their class project. Several Beach Watchers transported Salty from the beach to Cama Beach State Park, where the sea lion was butchered, tagged, num- bered and boiled. Once the excess meat was scraped off and the bones soaked in ammonia, the bones were bleached with hydro- gen peroxide and baked before assembly. "Our objective was to create a focal point for an environ- mental display of native sea life, showing their interaction and im- portance to the health of our wa- ters, along with an awareness of their greatness," said David Baumchen, project co-chair. "This was an exciting, hands-on project that everyone in the class worked on." Local businesses were solic- ited for donations and the class organized fundraisers to fund all of the expenses of the rearticula- tion, display materials and sign- Photo by David Baumchen age.