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| Endangered Species Mural |
ENDANGERED SPECIES MURAL
2019 - Master Artists - Roger Peet and Tricia Tripp
Location - Temple Studio - 417 5th Avenue
The Center for Biological Diversity, Blackwater Railroad Company
The new mural features the spectacled eider and North Pacific right whale and was painted by artists Roger Peet and Tricia Tripp. Measuring 15 feet tall and 105 feet long, the artwork is number 22 in the Center for Biological Diversity's national Endangered Species Mural Project.
“These two species embody the beautiful and bountiful waters that surround Alaska, but also represent the sad loss of biodiversity that has occurred in these waters,” said artist Roger Peet, the endangered species mural project coordinator. “The right whale and the eider have dramatically decreased in number and now survive in just a tiny fraction of their former ranges. We hope this mural inspires actions to prevent them from slipping away.”
Species Background
Spectacled eiders are large sea ducks that spend summers on boggy tundra and winters on remote pack ice in the Bering Sea. Even their bills have feathers to help them stay warm. Adept divers, they eat bottom-dwelling mollusks and crustaceans. To attract mates, the males emit a low call that sounds like a foghorn. The birds are threatened by oil and gas development, climate change, poisoning from lead bullets and Trump administration rollbacks of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Alaska is home to about 3,000 nesting pairs of these secretive marine birds.
North Pacific right whales are the most endangered whales in the world. Weighing in at 100 tons, these playful giants strain large volumes of ocean water to gleen krill and small fish. Due to historical commercial hunting followed by more recent illegal hunting, only about 100 North Pacific right whales are estimated to exist. They remain threatened by entanglement in fishing gear and marine garbage, ship strikes, climate change and ocean noise.