Orca Network marks 25 years with Penn Cove sail on Whidbey Island

A two-hour cruise on Penn Cove will put Orca Network’s 25th anniversary in the middle of the waters that helped define its mission. The Whidbey Island nonprofit will mark the milestone Saturday, June 13, with a special sail aboard the classic schooner Suva, followed by a gathering at Coupeville Wharf with author Rachel Clark.

The outing runs from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and is designed as more than a fundraiser. Guests will spend the first part of the evening on the water, then return to the wharf for time with Clark, whose novel The Blackfish Prophecy draws on orca histories that still shape how people talk about the Salish Sea. Tickets are $250 per person, and space is limited.

Orca Network was co-founded in 2001 by Howard Garrett and Susan Berta with a mission to connect people with whales and advocate for healthy habitat across the Pacific Northwest. Over the past 25 years, that work has taken a public face on Whidbey Island through the Langley Whale Center, which opened in March 2014 and became a year-round place for whale education and advocacy.

The choice of Penn Cove carries its own weight. On August 8, 1970, more than 80 orcas were rounded up there and herded into nets, and seven were taken into captivity. The event remains one of the most painful chapters in Northwest whale history, and it still gives the cove an emotional charge for many residents and visitors who follow Southern Resident orcas.

That history is part of why a celebration there feels layered rather than ceremonial. Orca Conservancy reported in 2024 that Southern Residents had returned to Penn Cove after decades of avoidance, a reminder that the place remains central to both memory and recovery in the region’s whale story.

The schooner Suva adds another layer of Whidbey heritage to the evening. Built in Hong Kong in 1925, the vessel was anchored in Penn Cove from 1925 to 1940, and the Whidbey Island Maritime Heritage Foundation has owned it since May 2015. The foundation operates Suva as an inspected small passenger vessel, preserving a piece of maritime history that is returning to the same waters it once called home.

Clark’s appearance will connect that history to storytelling. Her website says The Blackfish Prophecy was inspired by orcas including Tokitae, Ocean Sun, Granny and Tilikum, linking the event to names familiar to Pacific Northwest readers and to the broader struggle to protect orcas and the Chinook salmon they depend on. For Orca Network, the sail turns 25 years of advocacy into a living Whidbey Island scene, with Penn Cove, Coupeville and the conservation future of the Salish Sea all in the same frame.